


Splataclysm!

by secretagentspydetectiveninja



Category: Miraculous Ladybug, Splatoon
Genre: Enemies to worse enemies, Multi, Sorry Not Sorry, Splatoon AU, and full of surprise rarepairs, because I love that trope so much you have no idea, every ship except myvan is gay, it's very weird probably, this ended up more about the minor classmates (especially nath) than anyone else not gonna lie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2018-11-02 07:02:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10939401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretagentspydetectiveninja/pseuds/secretagentspydetectiveninja
Summary: The mysterious Captain Fu enlists the help of young inklings Marinette and Adrien, transforming them into secret agents called "Ladybug" and "Chat Noir", to defend the city of Inkopolis from Octarians and recover the stolen Great Butterfly.Meanwhile, back in Inkopolis City itself, a new inkling has moved in and is finding it rather hard to fit in.





	1. Welcome to Inkopolis

**Author's Note:**

> I love ML and I love Splatoon, so why not a crossover? I took some liberties with some things - Mireille and Aurore are most likely not actually cousins in the show, for starters, and also stuff like you can only get the Aerospray after getting the blueprints from Octo Valley so they really shouldn't be available at the start of the story etc, technical things like that.
> 
> But anyway, you don't have to be a Splatoon fan to read this if you want - hopefully I've explained things easily enough!

Nathaniel Kurtzberg couldn’t help but feel nervous about moving to the city. He had lived in Calamari County his whole life and was perfectly happy there, in relative peace and quiet, expecting to go on living there for the rest of his life without anything unusual or surprising happening to him. But everything had changed two years ago when his school friends Mireille and Aurore won the Youth Folk-Singing Contest.

The two of them teamed up to form a pop duo called the Squid Sisters (despite actually being cousins) and were immediately picked up by an agency in Inkopolis, where they shortly moved to. Now they were famous, and annoyingly this meant that Nath’s parents constantly pressured him to do something similar.

He didn’t want to be a singer, that was for sure. He would rather make a name for himself in some other kind of art, like painting. But his parents simply didn’t see things the same way. They were always reminding him that there was no future for him out here in the countryside, and that if he wanted to get anywhere in life then he should move to the city, just like Mireille and Aurore had done. Now, finally sick of their constant pestering, he’d packed his bags and taken the first train to Inkopolis.

It was just after midday when he arrived. Mireille and Aurore were waiting for him at the station. Plenty of adoring fans were waiting nearby too and waving at them, and they occasionally waved back and signed the odd autograph. As soon as they saw Nathaniel they ran over towards him, looking excited.

“Welcome to Inkopolis!” Mireille said, pulling him off the train and hugging him. “It’s been so long since we last saw you! How’s everyone back home? They all good? Has the weather been alright? Do you know anyone else here? You’re going to try battling, right?”

“Jeez, Mireille, let him breathe.” Aurore pushed her cousin aside and then shook Nath’s hand. “It’s good to see you again. Please ignore Mireille, she’s had too much chocolate and won’t shut up.”

“Hey, you had lots of chocolate too!”

“But at least I’m not going to use that as an excuse to bombard poor Nath with nonsense the second he’s arrived, am I?” She cleared her throat. “Anyway Nath, you’re here for battling, aren’t you? That’s why every fresh inkling moves to Inkopolis.”

“I’ve never tried a battle before,” Nath mumbled. “But my parents said it was either that or singing, so…”

“I see. Well don’t worry, Mireille and I can easily get you started. Here, come with us.”

The Squid Sisters led Nath out of the train station and towards what looked like an empty urban yard, graffiti and old posters covering the walls. Aurore handed him a green, box-like ink gun.

“This is a Splattershot Jr.,” she said. “It’s a Shooter type weapon. Basically, you press the trigger and it shoots out ink. It’s a pretty good beginner weapon since it’s easy to get used to and it’s pretty versatile. Decent fire rate and ink consumption. Why don’t you try it out?”

Nath held up the weapon and tentatively pulled the trigger. It immediately blasted out spurts of bright red ink all over the floor in front of him.

“Nice job!” Mireille said, bobbing up and down. “Since you’re just a beginner here you’re not going to need to do much more than that, since they won’t let you do anything other than Turf Wars until you’re more experienced. But this is pretty good!”

“What exactly do you do in a Turf War?” Nath asked. He knew of Turf Wars, of course. The most famous inkling sport in the world. But he had never participated in one before. Usually he preferred to stay out of combat if he could.

“You try to cover the ground in as much of your ink as possible within the time limit. The enemy team will also be inking ground, in a different colour, so you have to make sure you do more! And try not to get splatted!”

He gulped. “Splatted?”

“Yeah, like… dying. Don’t die.”

“You can die in battles?!”

“Of course you can!”

Aurore rolled her eyes. “Mireille, don’t be dramatic. It’s not really death, Nathaniel, it’s more like a temporary setback. Do you want me to show you? Look, I’ll splat you right now.”

She pulled out a long, thin, black and green sniper rifle and pointed it right at him. There was a whistling noise as the weapon charged up, then it hit him with a painful gob of ink that felt like it knocked him right out of his body. He was so stunned he couldn’t move for a few seconds, only feeling as if he was floating up into the air with no control over where he was going. Within another few seconds he was back to normal, standing in front of Aurore and Mireille as if nothing had happened.

“And that’s what it’s like to be splatted. Though if you were splatted in an actual battle you’d actually respawn back at your team’s base.”

Nath nodded.

“So stay out of enemy fire as much as you can. You’ll know because the enemy team will be using a different colour ink to you. Stay out of contact with it. Of course, if an enemy is nearby, you could always use your own weapon to splat them before they can get you, but don’t worry about it too much. Turf Wars are about inking turf, not killing people.”

“You know how to revert to squid form, right?” Mireille asked. “Like, you can turn into a squid, can’t you?”

“Yep,” Nath said. He demonstrated by quickly transforming into a little red squid, then back into humanoid form.

“Good work! I know most people can do it by this age but some people still struggle sometimes. Anyway, when you’re in squid form, you can swim through your own ink really fast. Wanna try it?”

Nath turned back into a squid and slithered along the ground through the red ink that he had shot out of his Splattershot Jr. a minute ago. Sure enough, he did travel very fast – much faster than he could have run in his humanoid form.

“Awesome!” Mireille said once he had returned to humanoid form. “You can do that during battle to move around really fast or hide from enemies so they can’t see you!”

“You can Super Jump too, right?” Aurore asked him.

“Yes,” he replied. It was easy – turn into squid form, then launch yourself high up into the air to land somewhere else.

“Good. In battle you can Super Jump to your teammates to reach them quicker. Though be careful, because enemies will be able to see where you’re going to land and they might splat you as soon as you get there.”

“Tell him about Subs and Specials!” Mireille said, shaking Aurore’s shoulder.

“Alright, fine, get off me! Okay Nathaniel, now with your Splattershot Jr., which is your Main Weapon, you also get two other weapons: a Sub Weapon and a Special Weapon. You can use your Sub whenever you want but it uses up a lot of ink and you might have to turn back into squid form to refill you ink tank for a while. As for your Special Weapon, that has to be charged up before you can use it. You do that by inking turf.”

“The Splattershot Jr.’s Sub Weapon is the Splat Bomb!” Mireille said. “Basically it’s just an ink bomb and you throw it, and in a few seconds it explodes. You should totally try it!”

Nath reached into the weapon pocket and pulled out what looked like a little pyramid filled with ink. He flung it away from him where it landed on the ground, sliding a little before settling. After a few seconds it exploded and coated the ground around it with ink.

“Good work! You can always throw those at enemies to splat them or just get them to go away from you. And your Special Weapon is even cooler! It’s the Bubbler!”

“It’s not that cool,” Aurore huffed. “It’s just a shield that surrounds you and protects you for a few seconds against enemy attacks. You can pass it onto your teammates too if you come into contact with them. But it doesn’t last long and you can still be pushed around, so I don’t get how it’s that great.”

“Of course it’s great! Anyway yeah, I think we’ve taught you everything you need to know to do a Turf War. We’ll take you to Inkopolis Plaza and there you can go to the Tower and enter your first match – how exciting! And just in time, too, since me and Aurore will have to go do the battle stage announcements soon. Come on!”

“But wait!” Nath said. “I just want to know something… what’s the point of all this? These matches inking turf and all that, isn’t it just for fun? How do people make a living from it? Or get famous from it?”

“You’ll earn money from winning matches, duh! And once you’re good enough to start Ranked Battles, you can easily become famous by being one of the best players in history!”

Right. That sounded somewhat… superficial.

“Okay, cool,” he said. “Thanks for showing me all this.”

“It’s no problem! Now let’s go to Inkopolis Plaza and get you started on some actual matches!”

 

Inkopolis Plaza was filled with inklings, jellyfish, a large television screen, a shopping mall area called “Booyah Base”, and of course the great Inkopolis Tower, stretching up into the sky.

“We’ve got to go now but our studio’s just upstairs so come and talk to us if you need to!” Mireille said before dashing off.

“Go to the lobby in Inkopolis Tower and get started – good luck!” Aurore added, then followed her cousin away into the crowd of inklings.

Nath looked around, feeling a little overwhelmed. Everyone else here seemed so… well… _fresh_ , as people said these days. All hanging out with their friends, laughing and having a good time, wearing cool clothes, carrying cool weapons, knowing exactly what they were doing…

It was the kind of life he had always wanted but never really fit into. But then again, that had been back home in the countryside, where everything was different. Maybe here he could make a new start for himself and actually be the kind of person he wanted to be.

Clutching his Splattershot Jr. in his arms tightly, he headed into Inkopolis Tower through the automatic doors. The lobby was split into sections where people were milling about, waiting for the next battles to start. Nath headed towards the sign saying “Turf War”, not really sure what to do next.

“Hi there!”

The person next to him had spoken to him – ugh, a stranger. Nath hated talking to strangers. He wasn’t even a fan of talking in general. It made him feel nervous. He turned to see that the person who had spoken to him was a cute little inkling girl with short, yellow tentacle hair, wearing a frilly pink dress and carrying what looked like an oversized paint roller.

“Hi,” he said back.

“Are you new?” the inkling girl asked, her voice rather high-pitched. “It’s just that you’re looking a little lost!”

“Yeah, I’m new. Just arrived here today.”

“Well then, welcome! My name is Rose. What’s your name?”

“Nathaniel, but you can call me Nath for short.”

“Nice to meet you!”

Nath tried not to roll his eyes. Small talk was the _worst_. It was just saying the same things over and over again with no real feeling behind them – what was the point of that?

“Anyway,” Rose continued, “I’m sure you’ll like Turf Wars, they’re really fun. They’re the least aggressive out of all battle types, which is why they’re my favourite! In fact I don’t actually battle that often. I feel like I’m not competitive enough compared to everyone else. But it’s okay because the most important thing is to have fun, right?”

“Yep,” Nath said, putting on a fake smile.

“Good! I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun together!”

The bell sounded for the next battle to start. Thank goodness, since Nath was not feeling in the mood for dealing with the sickly sweetness of a person like Rose for much longer. He followed her onto a launchpad, where he was given a map and linked up to the computer system that would help him track his score and his teammates, then he Super Jumped to the battle location.

The battle stage was called “Urchin Underpass”, located under a highway bridge just as its name suggested. Nath had a quick check of the map but it was far too complicated to memorize properly right now. He turned and had a look at his teammates, standing on the spawn point along with him. They had a range of odd weapons that he had never seen before. Through the linked-up computer system Nath could see that Rose’s weapon was called a “Carbon Roller Deco”, whatever that was.

“Is your weapon better than a Splattershot Jr.?” he asked her.

“Nah, all weapons are good. It just depends how you play! I personally don’t really like shooting so I go with Rollers, and anyway the objective in Turf Wars is inking as much as possible, not attacking, so you can use whatever you want!”

He remembered how Aurore had called the Splattershot Jr. a beginner weapon. Clearly it wasn’t something he should stick with for long.

“Where can I buy new weapons?” he asked.

“Ammo Knights back at Booyah Base sells weapons,” Rose replied, “though Tikki might not want to sell you more weapons until you have more experience. She’s like that.”

The computer system notified that the opposing team was now assembling too, at their own spawn point on the other side of the battle stage. Nath checked the map and had a look at what sort of team they were facing.

“Uh oh,” Rose muttered.

“What’s wrong?”

She hastily put a smile back on her face. “Nothing! Just… try your best and have fun!” Her smile fell slightly as she glanced back at the opponents on the map.

“Seriously Rose, what’s wrong? Is it these opponents? Are they really good or something?”

“Well… Adrien’s fine, I suppose, but the other three… we don’t call them the Slaughter Squad for nothing…”

Slaughter Squad? Wasn’t a name like that overkill? Surely they couldn’t be that bad. Nath took another look at the map to get some more details.

_Kim: Aerospray MG_

_Max: E-Litre 3K Scope_

_Alix: Aerospray RG_

Their weapons didn’t look like much. Two weak airbrushes and an old fuel pump – that was nothing compared to a gun, right? Rose was probably exaggerating. Of course someone as bubbly and innocent as her would be intimidated by a bunch of inklings much fresher than her.

He was about to mention something about it when the signal played for the match to begin. His teammates immediately began spreading out from the base, inking all the turf they could get at. The ink colour of their team was a bright orange, and from the looks of the map, the enemy’s ink colour was light blue.

Not really knowing where to go, Nath followed Rose down the slope in front of them, trying to shoot ink onto all the turf that she missed. Her Carbon Roller Deco was rolling along the ground at a much quicker speed than he could run with his heavy gun. He had to keep dipping into squid form and swimming along the ground to keep up with her.

The first few seconds of the match weren’t so bad. Nath realized that, quite annoyingly, his points counter did not go up at all when inking walls, so clearly only the ground counted as “turf”. He also realized that the Splattershot Jr. was rather messy, spraying ink all over the place no matter where he pointed it. The lack of accuracy was probably going to come back to bite him at some point, he could just tell. At least for now it was helping him get a few points.

He followed Rose through a strange grate that could be surpassed by swimming straight through it in squid form, heading towards the centre of the battle arena in order to cover it in orange. That was when the trouble began.

There was an ominous whooshing noise somewhere overhead. The shadow of a target appeared on the ground just beside him. Rose quickly pulled him aside and as far away as possible – just in time, as a huge tornado of blue ink suddenly landed in the area, only narrowly missing them.

“That was an Inkstrike – a Special Weapon,” Rose said quickly, before running back and throwing her Roller down onto all the newly blue turf to make it orange again.

A Special Weapon? Already? How could someone have charged up their Special so fast? Nath looked at his metre to see that he wasn’t even close to using his Special yet. In any case he followed Rose back into the area and started inking turf again.

He was startled by a weird siren sound. Turning around he saw that there was an enemy device on the ground that was rapidly approaching him, leaving a trail of blue ink behind it. He backed up as quick as he could – but not fast enough. The device hit him and exploded, splatting him to pieces.

Ouch… being splatted still hurt a bit. Hopefully he would get used to that. While he was waiting for his body to reform he could still access the computer. It told him that he had been hit by a Seeker, which had been sent by Kim. It must have been his Sub Weapon.

Within a few seconds Nath had respawned back at his home base, far away from all the action. All the turf around here was already inked in a bright layer of orange. It would take a while to swim all the way to somewhere that hadn’t been inked yet – but wait, he could Super Jump to his teammates, right? He opened up the map and launched himself into a Super Jump towards Rose.

Oh no – that had been a mistake. While high up in the air he could see that Rose had just been splatted, and he was descending rapidly towards an enemy who was watching him with glee, already shooting at the spot where he was about to land. Sure enough, as soon as he reached the ground he was hit with at least 5 shots in the space of a second, enough to splat him again before he could even take a single step. Or before he could even get a look at his opponent.

Waiting to respawn again, he saw that this time he had been splatted by Alix and her Aerospray RG. But surely, _surely_ a simple airbrush couldn’t be that good at splatting people? Nath knew a thing or two about art brushes and he knew that airbrushes were weak. But then again, the Aerospray fire rate seemed to be so high, so much higher than his own weapon. Maybe that made all the difference. In any case, it looked like she had already inked enough turf to have charged up her Inkstrike again.

Once he had respawned he took a quick look at the map but couldn’t make sense of where any of his teammates were. He wasn’t even sure which one was Rose, and he didn’t have time to stop and check – every second counted. The map showed that the enemy team had already claimed the centre of the arena in huge swathes of blue ink, and were fast moving in on Nath’s home base. There was no time to waste.

Compressing himself back into squid form, he surged forwards through what was left of the orange ink towards where the sounds of battling were. Before he even reached anyone he was suddenly splatted again, rather violently, by what looked like a mini twister of blue ink that had zoomed towards him so fast there was no way he could have moved aside in time. The computer screen told him that it was Kim using his Inkzooka, a Special Weapon. In fact he was still using it, and from the looks of it, it could travel straight through walls. _Great._

Respawning once again, Nath decided perhaps a new tactic was in order. While the enemies had rushed ahead, there was no one protecting all the blue turf they had already inked near their own base right at the start of the match. Perhaps if he could sneak through one of the side alleys, he could reach it without being spotted and actually be able to ink it back to orange without being attacked.

He transformed into a squid and set off immediately. Urchin Underpass did indeed have a few sneaky routes down the sides of the arena where he wouldn’t attract any attention. In fact, this was working! The sounds of battling were quietly fading away as he got further away from them. And there – yes! There was fresh, unguarded blue ink just up ahead! Perfect!

Nath jumped up into humanoid form and started shooting orange ink. Points, at last!

But wait… what was this laser line pointing right at him? He looked up and followed it to see Max perched way off in the distance, aiming his E-Litre 3K Scope right at him. Pfff, that was alright, there was no way he would be able to reach–

Except he did. Nath was splatted in one shot.

No way. That was just unfair. How could Max’s weapon have such great range? And be powerful enough to splat someone in one go from all the way over there?

By the time Nath respawned, he could directly see that Kim and Alix were nearing his team’s home base. He swam ahead in squid form and tried to go around the side of them but they spotted him and started shooting at him. Thank goodness their weapons were short-ranged and weak or he’d be dead again already.

He remembered his Sub Weapon, the Splat Bomb, and threw one towards them. Unfortunately his aim was slightly off and it didn’t go far enough, exploding well away from them. The next thing he knew, he had suddenly been splatted again – this time by a hidden Ink Mine from Alix.

This was getting tedious. As soon as he respawned again he simply charged forwards as fearlessly as he could, firing ink in every direction. His weapon had better range and damage stats than theirs, right? In that case maybe running headfirst into battle might work better than trying to sneak around.

But no – Max splatted him with his E-Litre 3K Scope again, from so far away it was hard to even see him. It was so unfair!

When Nath respawned for the sixth time, he could tell it was hopeless. The map was almost entirely covered in blotches of light blue, with the odd specks of orange here and there, though those were rapidly disappearing. The other team had now reached Nath’s home base and were waiting there, ready to begin shooting at people if they tried to leave it. Even Adrien was here now. He was holding a Krak-On Splat Roller and looking somewhat apologetic about his rough teammates.

Well, at least standing in the home base circle gave Nath some protection. He stayed put and started firing ink in every direction he could, trying to aim for his opponents. The Splattershot Jr.’s accuracy was too low for him to be able to splat anyone though.

One by one his teammates were splatted and respawned back on the home base, deciding to stay there rather than risk stepping off it and being immediately splatted again. Rose thwacked her Carbon Roller Deco on the ground over and over, splashing ink everywhere.

It wasn’t good enough. The other team were too good at dodging, too speedy to hit, and for the most part they stayed out of range and kept themselves safe. Any time one of Nath’s teammates dared venture out of the home base circle, they were immediately converged on and splatted.

Gee… no wonder those three were called the Slaughter Squad…

“I’ve charged up my Special Weapon!” Rose said to Nath, hard to hear over the sound of weapons firing everywhere. “It’s Bomb Rush with Seekers – I’ll send as many Seekers at them as I can within the few seconds my Special is active, so get ready to use that to your advantage!”

Sure enough, she unleashed a torrent of Seekers along the ground. They began chasing down the enemy team members, though it didn’t look like they actually managed to splat anyone. At least they had driven the enemies back – enough for Nath to finally be able to leave the base and begin inking turf properly again.

Or so he thought.

Max, up on his sniper perch and well out of harm’s way, splatted Nath before he had even taken two steps.

It was hopeless. With only 10 seconds remaining, there was no way they could win now. Not a chance. The best thing Nath could do after respawning again was to stand on the home base, firing ink around him and trying to charge up his Special metre enough that he would be able to use the Bubbler before time ran out. That might give him and his teammates enough protection to not lose _quite_ so badly.

But he couldn’t charge it up quick enough. The match ended, and all the players were Super Jumped to the centre of the arena by the computer system, ready to find out the results.

It was no contest whatsoever. Nath looked at the map to see that it was pretty much all blue, except for a tiny smudge of orange around his team’s home base. Yeah, they had lost. By a lot.

A tiny black cat-like creature appeared in the centre of the arena, between the two teams. He yawned and took a look at a map himself.

“Alright, here are the results,” he muttered, sounding sleepy. “The orange team inked 6.3% of the total available turf that can be inked, and the blue team inked 88.7%. Blue team wins. Yay.” He half-heartedly waved a little flag in their direction. “Now get out of here before the next match begins. Oh wait, it’s stage changeover time. So leave if you want, or stay here while the ink evaporates, whatever. I’m going back to sleep.”

He disappeared again. How was he doing that? Was it some kind of Super Jump? Anyway, weren’t mammals extinct? How was there a cat here? Who even was this guy?

It didn’t matter anyway. Nath had lost his first match. In fact, he had lost it very, very badly. Looking at everyone’s point scores on the computer system, he hadn’t even done well for a beginner. Only 140p? That was nothing! And the Aerosprays had got in the 2300p range! (Though that did include a 1000p bonus for winning, so it had been more like 1300p.)

The Slaughter Squad were already celebrating their win. Even though they had already started walking away they were so loud that they could easily be heard. Adrien had been left behind and he was watching them, looking a little uneasy.

“You only got more than me because you’ve got Inkstrike, that doesn’t count!”

“Oh shut up Kim, you know I’m better than you…”

“Well I splatted more people so there!”

“Actually Max splatted the most people, so why don’t you try out-snipering him next time? Or are you not good enough to be a sniper?”

“I could totally beat Max!”

Their voices finally faded away. Nath looked at the ground, ashamed at his easy defeat. And perhaps it was more than shame. Was it…

Jealousy?

He had never had a “squad” like that, so to speak. Those three were killers. The best of the best. Intimidating, terrifying, striking fear into the hearts of their opponents. That was the freshest kind of inkling that anyone could ever hope to be. What would it take to be part of a squad like that? Or to be part of _their_ squad, right along with them? He had always dreamed of being respected, popular, not on the fringes of squid society like he always was. But he was just… too shy…

His thoughts were interrupted by Rose.

“You did well for your first try!” she gushed, giving him a double thumbs up.

“No I didn’t,” he muttered. “And anyway, we lost.”

“That’s okay, not everything is about winning. You’ll still have earned some money, I’m sure! Though not everything is about money either!”

“Is every battle as difficult as that?”

“No, not at all. You were just unlucky to end up battling against Turf War legends on your first match. You won’t be against them every time, I’m sure. They do Ranked Battles sometimes too, so they’ll be busy with that and you’ll get easier opponents here! Or, of course, you could be lucky like Adrien and end up on their team with them…”

That didn’t sound like much fun either. Adrien had barely got to do anything. It was like he had been an outsider on his own team, and that was not what Nath wanted. Nath had felt like an outsider for far too much of his life.

“I need a better weapon,” he said finally. “Did you say Ammo Knights sells weapons? Where is that?”

“It’s at Booyah Base back at Inkopolis Plaza, but I don’t think Tikki would think you’re ready for–”

“Thanks.”

Without waiting to listen any longer, he headed away and Super Jumped back to the Plaza.

 

The weapons shop, Ammo Knights, was small and cosy. Inside was a strange bug-like creature who seemed to know a lot about weapons for someone who didn’t even look like she could lift one.

“Hello, my name is Tikki!” she said as soon as Nath walked in. “Are you new here? You look like it!”

He looked new, did he? Clearly he wasn’t fresh enough yet.

“Can I buy some new weapons?” he asked. “My friends gave me this Splattershot Jr. but I don’t think it’s very good…”

Tikki frowned. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Well… I just lost my first Turf War really badly because the others had way better weapons. Stuff with a high fire rate.”

“Weapons with high fire rates often have low damage, range and accuracy. Their weapons aren’t necessarily better than yours, they’re just better at using them. That’s all. You can easily be a brilliant player using a Splattershot Jr.”

She sounded like a teacher! Just try hard and you will succeed, no matter what… ugh. No.

“I don’t think it suits me,” he said. “I want something more powerful.”

“Weapons that do more damage usually have a lower fire rate, though. So which do you want? A high fire rate or high damage?”

“Um… I don’t know.”

“Exactly. You’re a newbie here, and the Splattershot Jr. is the perfect weapon to get you to learn the ropes. Come back once you’ve got a bit more battling experience and then I’ll show you some new weapons, alright? And have a think about what sort of weapon would suit you. Do some research.”

“Okay, thanks,” he said. She really was sounding like a teacher now, and it was starting to annoy him. “I guess I’ll go do some more battles then… and hope the Slaughter Squad aren’t my opponents again…”

Tikki chuckled. “Oh, so you were against them, were you? I wouldn’t judge a Splattershot Jr. based on that. You’re a newbie so you’re always going to lose, it’s nothing to do with your weapon. But trust me – those three can be beaten, and they can be beaten with a Splattershot Jr.”

“What? But they have Aerosprays, and a sniper…”

“I stand by what I said. It’s the player who wins a match, not the weapon. If Splattershot Jr. is someone’s favourite weapon and they know how to use it to the best of its capabilities, that’s infinitely better than a newbie messing around with an Aerospray or an E-Litre.”

“But–”

“Trust me,” she said firmly. “Go get some more experience. Then come back and tell me exactly what kind of weapon you’re looking for.”

He sighed. “Alright, thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure. See you soon, and good luck in your future battles!”

That had been far from ideal. Turning around, Nath headed towards the exit of the shop, looking at the ground. His floppy red tentacle fringe fell over the top of his face and he didn’t bother to move it aside again – until he walked straight into someone who was just coming through the door.

“Oh sorry – I didn’t see you there!”

He looked up to see a fresh-looking inkling girl standing in front of him, her bouncy black tentacles tied into pigtails somewhat like Aurore’s. She was pretty… _very_ pretty…

“Oh, um, sorry,” Nath mumbled, stepping aside.

“Are you new?” the girl asked.

Oh no, she could tell too?

“Yep.”

“Welcome to Inkopolis!” she said, beaming at him in a way that made his heart jump a few beats. “I’m Marinette. What’s your name?”

“Nathaniel.”

“Cool! Well, I’ll see you around, right? Let me know if you want to do some practice battles or something!”

“Yeah… see you…”

He let his fringe fall back over his face and walked off as quick as he could, his face heating up too much.

Marinette… that was a nice name. Maybe he would take up her offer of practice battles. If he could psych himself up enough to speak to her again, that was.


	2. Finding Nino

Marinette had always got along well with Tikki, ever since she had moved to Inkopolis such a long time ago. Over the years the two of them had become close friends, almost like family. That was exactly what she needed right now anyway.

“Still no sign of Nino,” she said once Nath had left the store, dropping her welcoming smile immediately. “I’m starting to think maybe everyone’s right. The pressure got to him and he ran away or something.”

“What are your instincts telling you?” Tikki asked.

Of course she would say that. Tikki was always trying to nudge Marinette into figuring things out for herself, rather than simply telling her all the answers.

“My gut tells me he’s in trouble,” she admitted. “He was perfectly fine! Running Shrimp Kicks with Wayzz and earning a huge profit, battling with me and Alya and Adrien in his spare time for fun… he wouldn’t just leave and go back home without telling us! It’s been a month and we still haven’t heard from him – I’m getting so worried! Something must be wrong!”

“Then maybe it’s time to do something,” Tikki said.

“But what? Where do I even begin? When I told the police they just laughed at me, saying it’s common for Ranked Battle pressures to get to inklings enough for them to run away without telling anyone.”

“Maybe it’s not the police who you need to talk to. Maybe it’s someone who will take your concerns seriously, who understands what it’s like to worry about a danger that no one else will listen to.”

Marinette wrinkled up her nose. “You can’t mean Captain Fu, can you? That old guy living down the drain? He’s so old his brain is falling to pieces. Talking about Octarian invasions and stuff. He’s paranoid.”

Tikki shrugged. “I’m just saying talking to him might help.”

“Well, I guess I’ll try…”

“Oh, and that’s not all! I’ve got a little something for you.”

Marinette couldn’t help but smile. Any time Tikki said ‘And that’s not all!’ it meant she was about to offer Marinette a new weapon – something more unique and powerful than before. It happened to her a lot, since she won so many battles these days.

Tikki pulled out a red and black Shooter type weapon. “This design is so new I’ve never even sold one of these before, but I think you’re ready to wield it. It’s called the Hero Shot.”

Marinette took it in her hands. It felt much like holding a good old Splattershot, though it looked a lot more futuristic.

“Decent stats all around,” Tikki continued. “I think that would suit a jack-of-all-trades like you. Unfortunately you won’t be allowed to use it in Ranked Battles or Turf Wars without adjustments.”

“Why not?”

“It has three different types of Sub Weapons that can be switched out at any time. That would give you an unfair advantage over your opponents.”

“Then what am I supposed to use this for?”

“Perhaps for whatever Captain Fu decides you should use it for. And for getting back Nino.”

Marinette frowned. “Are you saying… you think the Octarians kidnapped Nino or something? And that Captain Fu’s right about them?”

Tikki shrugged. “It’s merely a possibility. You should talk to him about it.”

A possibility? A low one, surely. Marinette had never even seen a real Octarian in her life before, only pictures in her school textbooks about the Great Turf War a hundred years ago. If they really were still a threat, then surely more people would be saying so than just some lonely old man who had lost his marbles? Why should she trust him?

She trusted Tikki, though. Tikki’s advice and weaponry had led her to victory in countless battles. She wouldn’t have a rank of S+ without her.

Sighing, she said, “Fine, I’ll go talk to Captain Fu. But I’ll take everything he says with a pinch of sea salt.”

Tikki nodded. “Good, Marinette. Let me know if that weapon comes in handy.”

“How much does it cost?”

“This one’s free.”

She blinked a few times. “What?”

“Completely free. Think of it as a gift for reaching rank S+. You’ve earned it.”

“Tikki, thank you so much! I’m going to go try it out in the shooting range right now!”

She ran out of the back of the store, taking her new Hero Shot with her.

 

 

 

Adrien poked Plagg in the side. “Plagg! Wake up!”

“Shush, I’m on my break,” Plagg muttered, turning over on his crate. “Next match doesn’t start for half an hour.”

“It’s not about that! It’s about something else!”

Plagg sat up and yawned. “Well if it’s not about judging matches then why are you bothering me about it?”

“What can you tell me about Captain Fu?”

Plagg shrugged. “He’s an old sea turtle living in a shack in Octo Valley, and he fought in the Great Turf War. Now let me go back to sleep.”

“Wait!” Adrien turned and glanced at the drain leading to Octo Valley, just a few steps away. “I’ve had a thought, and it’s a bit weird, but… do you think he knows what happened to Nino? I’m just worried Nino got taken away by Octarians or something, and…”

“What are you asking me for? Go ask him!”

“But I don’t even know him! And you’re even older than he is, right? You surely know things about Octarians too?”

“All I know is that they’re slimy and weird.”

Adrien sighed. “Look. I just saw Marinette Dupain-Cheng going down the drain to Octo Valley and that got me thinking about Octarians, and Captain Fu, and Nino’s weird disappearance, that sort of thing. Do you think she knows something important about where Nino’s gone? Is that why she’s going to Octo Valley? It’s Marinette so it _must_ be something important!”

“Just ask her yourself.”

“I can’t! She’s a rank S+, she’s the most elite and fresh of all inklings! She doesn’t even bother with Turf Wars anymore!”

Plagg rolled his eyes. “Nino was friends with her, and he was friends with you too. If he could talk to Marinette then so can you. Anyway, have you quite finished yet? I was in the middle of a nap and I’d like to continue it.”

The large television screen in the middle of Inkopolis Plaza suddenly lit up, ready for a news report. Adrien looked up to see the famous Squid Sisters on screen. What were they doing there right now? Surely it wasn’t time for them to announce the new battle stages yet, was it?

“News flash, news flash!” Mireille said, with barely restrained excitement in her voice. “The Great Butterfly, usually residing at the top of Inkopolis Tower, has vanished!”

“How did someone manage to steal something that big without anyone seeing?” Aurore muttered under her breath.

“The Great Butterfly was used to power the city, though. What are we gonna do without it? Will we lose power?”

“Don’t cause a panic, Mireille, I’m sure it’ll be fine. We’ve got other butterflies we can use in the meantime.”

The screen behind them switched to a blurry picture of a flying saucer.

“It might have something to do with this UFO,” Mireille said. “It crash-landed near the city not too long ago. If anyone has any details about it then please put in a report.”

“And please don’t panic. Everything will be fine.”

“I think that’s it for now. We’ll be announcing the battle stages soon, so be on the lookout. Until then…”

The two of them put their arms up in their signature pose and sang in unison, “Stay fresh!”

The screen went back to showing advertisements. Adrien turned back to Plagg, who had managed to keep his eyes open long enough to watch the news report.

“Do you think Octarians stole the Great Butterfly? Does it have something to do with Nino?”

“Just go ask Captain Fu about it already!”

“Alright, I will…”

Adrien walked off and stood in front of the grate on the floor that led to Octo Valley. He had seen Captain Fu pop his head out of here occasionally, trying to trick passers-by into listening to him rambling. Fu was _weird_ , that was for sure. He was the opposite of fresh. But did he know something useful? Marinette certainly seemed to think so, and there was no inkling around fresher than her.

Trying not to think too hard about what he was doing, Adrien turned into squid form and dropped through the grate.

 

The drains took quite a while of whizzing through the ground to reach Octo Valley, a large mountainous region just beyond the outer limits of Inkopolis. It was quiet and cold up here. At least the view was something to marvel at.

Adrien jumped out of the drainpipe to see that Marinette herself had only just arrived – she must have been going fairly slowly. She was looking around in wonder. On the path not too far below them was the small shack where Captain Fu was said to live. Smoke was coming out of the chimney.

Adrien was not sure whether or not he wanted to say something to Marinette and drew attention to himself, but he didn’t need to. She must have heard him.

“Adrien? What are you doing here?”

She had turned to face him, frowning slightly. Huh, so she remembered his name. Surely she must have faced so many opponents in battles before, yet she remembered Adrien?

“I’m looking for Nino,” he said.

“Oh, you too?” Relief flooded her face. “So I’m not the only one who thinks he’s in trouble!”

“And there’s just been a report that the Great Butterfly that powers the city has gone missing – I think that might have something to do with it!”

“So the Octarians are trying to take things away from us? Maybe Captain Fu isn’t so crazy after all…”

“Should we go talk to him?”

Marinette nodded. “Tikki suggested it to me. She even gave me this special weapon, look. It’s called the Hero Shot.” She held up a red Shooter with black spots on it. “Looks like one of those insects, doesn’t it? Ladybugs?”

“Aren’t those extinct?”

She shrugged. “Maybe there are still a few left. Plagg’s still here after all, isn’t he? All the other mammals have been extinct since before the start of the Mollusc Era.”

She knew about all that? Adrien had studied world history a lot considering his father was very strict with his education, but most people in Inkopolis did not usually care about such things. Marinette, though… she was fresh in more ways than one. No wonder Nino said he had a crush on her.

But wait. If Nino had a crush on Marinette, and she was searching for a way to get him back…

“Is Nino your boyfriend?” Adrien asked before he could stop himself. Marinette stared at him, puzzled.

“No, is he not… is he not _yours?_ ”

Adrien shook his head. “No, he’s just my friend, I’ve already got someone I – uh, I mean… I’ve already…”

Whoops, he hadn’t been supposed to tell anyone about his special someone. If news got to his father about it, he’d probably be in so much trouble he would have to leave Inkopolis. No, he would have to wait until his father went back to the countryside before he could properly tell anyone. Until then it was just a secret.

Marinette didn’t seem to care, though. She turned back towards the valley and said, “I guess we’d better go talk to Captain Fu now.”

“Yeah, you’re right…”

The two of them walked down to the shack together. They didn’t even need to knock on the door before a shaky old sea turtle emerged, striding right up to them and staring up at them with his beady eyes.

“Octarians!” he said in a gruff voice, whacking his walking stick on the ground. “They’re up to no good!”

“Er, yes,” Marinette agreed, nodding, though she took a slight step back. “That’s why Adrien and I are here. Our friend Nino went missing a month ago and–”

“No doubt they kidnapped him,” Fu said. “They’ve been looking for inklings to experiment on.”

“Experiment?”

“Yes, trying to figure out how to make super-soldiers in order to invade our lands and force us back into the sea! And they needed more power, so they took the Great Butterfly too. Just heard about that on the old television. That UFO people have been talking about, that’s got to be Octarian stuff too. Nasty creatures!”

He shook a fist in the general direction of the valley.

“So,” Marinette said, “do you have any tips on how we can rescue Nino? And retrieve the Great Butterfly, of course.”

“It’s going to be dangerous. The Octarians live underground in what they call “kettles”, and you’ll have to explore their world without getting caught or splatted by their toxic ink. That’d kill you permanently. I’ve got some old armour that’ll help, if you want. And a radio so that I can still stay in contact with you no matter where you go, ‘cause I don’t have one of those telephone thingies.”

“Yes please, that would be useful.”

Fu shuffled back into the shack and returned with two sets of armour, one red and one black, and two walkie-talkies. Marinette put on the red armour and Adrien took the black.

“There, now you look like real warriors!” Fu said proudly, standing back and admiring them. “I can just tell you’re going to do a great job! And since you’re going to be secret agents, you’ll need codenames. Of course we could call you Agents 3 and 4, but…”

“Who are Agents 1 and 2?”

“That’s classified. Anyway, your mission is so special you ought to have fresher names than that. How about… hmm… well, you look like a ladybug with that spotty gun, and you’re just giving off cat vibes to me. So what about Ladybug and Black Cat?”

“Ladybug sounds amazing!” Marinette said, clutching her Hero Shot tightly.

“Black Cat…” Adrien frowned. “What about Chat Noir? I like the sound of that better.”

“Alright then, Chat Noir,” Fu shrugged.

“Thank you.”

Adrien looked down, trying so hard not to think about it, but… Chat Noir was the nickname he had been given by that certain someone, his beloved inkling who he couldn’t tell anyone about yet. He did not know how long it was going to take to rescue Nino, nor how difficult it would be, so perhaps having this nickname be a reminder for him would make him feel a little better. Give him strength. After all, strength was something his beloved had a lot of…

“So, are you ready to go?” Fu asked. “It’s better you get going as soon as possible, and I’ll help you out by radio along the way!”

“Wait… now?” Marinette sounded a little alarmed. “But how long will this take? Should we go back to the city first and tell someone that we’re–”

“No, this mission has to stay top secret! And there’s no time to waste – the Octarians could be creating super weapons right this instant! There’s a grate leading down to their first kettle just down that path there – hop in and get going. Remember – splat any Octarians on sight, and don’t let them splat you or you’ll die for good! Now good luck, buckos!”

He pushed them both in the general direction of the first kettle entrance. It was a circular grate that simply went straight down into the rocky ground underneath, leading to who knew where.

Marinette, the fearless S+ rank legend, simply hopped in without another thought. Adrien took a deep breath, steeling himself, reminding himself that he was very good at splatting opponents with his Krak-On Splat Roller, and these Octarians probably wouldn’t be very good at fighting anyway considering that Turf War was an inkling sport. It was going to be fine. They were going to save Nino.

He jumped into squid form and followed Marinette down the grate.

 

 

 

“Rose, it’s just not fair!” Nath whined, leaning against the side of Inkopolis Tower with a drink in hand, trying to look as fresh as everyone else around here seemed to be. “I’m just so bad at Turf Wars – even when my team wins, it’s never because of me! Splattershot Jr. is so not my weapon. I think I’ll have a go at using a Roller type weapon, just like you.”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea!” Rose said. “Rollers are so much fun!”

“Do you have any tips?”

Rose shook her head. “I’m not very good either, but then again I don’t really battle very often.”

That was true. Out of all the battles Nath had participated in recently, Rose had only been there for two of them. How did she deal with being so casual about it? Battling – and especially _being fresh_ – was a way of life! Not something to be treated like a simple hobby!

“I guess I’ll ask someone else for tips then,” he huffed. “The other day I ran into someone called Marinette, and she offered to help me, so…”

“Don’t count on it,” came a voice from somewhere to the side.

Nath looked to see Alya Césaire standing there, close enough to hear their conversation. He knew about her, though he hadn’t formally met her yet. She was a rank S+. Just like Marinette. Such a legend that Nath almost dropped his drink when he realized that she was actually speaking to him.

“Why not?” Rose asked.

“Marinette’s gone,” Alya muttered, folding her arms. “So has Adrien. They’ve vanished, just like Nino did.”

“Are they okay?”

“Who knows? Maybe they just got sick of it here and ran away. People do that sometimes.”

“Oh no! I hope they’re alright!”

“Yeah, I hope so too. I just wish they’d bothered to say goodbye…”

Nath knew he should probably join in the conversation, but the idea of talking to a rank S+ was too overwhelming to even contemplate. At least when he’d briefly spoken to Marinette the other day he hadn’t known who she was, since he had barely just arrived in the city, but now…

No, it was too much. He wasn’t fresh enough to talk to someone like Alya. Neither was Rose, actually – what was she doing, having a conversation with an S+? There was no way something like that was allowed! Nath avoided the conversation and sneaked away as quickly as he could.

Once he was a safe distance away he burst into Ammo Knights. Tikki looked up at his dramatic entrance, somewhat amused.

“Can I help you?” she asked in that annoying, motherly tone.

“I want a Roller type weapon,” Nath said. “You told me to come back when I’ve got more experience and know what I want, right? Well I want a Roller.”

“Alright,” Tikki said. She pulled one out from behind the counter, one even bigger than Rose’s. “Here’s a Splat Roller. It has Suction Bombs as its Sub Weapon, and Killer Wail as its Special – or ‘Shocking Riff’, as people are calling it these days after Jagged Stone used it in his concert. Anyway, you use Rollers by–”

“I know how to use it,” Nath said, snatching it off her. It was much bigger than he had realized, wider than he was tall. “How much does it cost?”

“1000 coins.”

Phew – he had that much money. He swiped his card through the machine before she could even say anything, then ran off with his new Splat Roller to test it out in battle.

 

 

Oh boy. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.

_Alya was in his team._

This was not a drill. This was not a joke.

Alya Césaire, THE Alya Césaire, was actually on his team for this Turf War.

“You okay?” she asked him as they assembled on the spawn point of Bluefin Depot, a battle stage that looked like an abandoned train station above water.

“Yeah… I’m…”

“It’s okay, I’m not that good at Turf Wars,” she said. “My rank S+ is because of Ranked Battles only. So don’t think of me as some kind of celebrity or something, because when it comes to this, I’m no better than average.”

Nath nodded, hoping he didn’t look too starstruck.

The other team assembled on their base too, and Nath had a look. There didn’t seem to be anyone he knew in particular – oh, except the daughter of the mayor of Inkopolis.

“ _Chloé,_ ” Alya growled, her eyes narrowing.

“You don’t like her?”

Nath bit his tongue but the question had slipped out before he could stop it. He had heard stories that Chloé Bourgeois used to be a spoiled brat, using her riches to bribe people into throwing matches just so that she could win, but supposedly that had all passed now. Rose had said Chloé was very nice these days. But then again, that was Rose. She was nice about everyone.

Alya looked back at Nath. “Let’s just say… I won’t respect her until she starts respecting me.”

Nath was about to ask what that meant when the signal played for the match to begin. He quickly slammed his Splat Roller down on the ground and began running forwards, inking purple turf in a wide path. Alya ran ahead with her .96 Gal weapon and his other teammates began spreading out from the base too.

Bluefin Depot was annoyingly rickety, and one wrong move would send you spiralling down into the water below. Nath was finding the Splat Roller clunky and hard to manoeuvre, and it took him quite a while to reach the middle of the stage. Alya and Chloé seemed to be ferociously shooting at each other, ignoring everything else that was going on and not even bothering to ink turf. Did they have a rivalry or something? Apparently that happened with people sometimes.

In any case, it was better to stay out of it. Nath continued running around inking turf, trying to stay safe, and whenever anyone came near him he repeatedly whacked the Splat Roller on the ground to fling enough ink at them to splat them. He had seen Rose doing that and it seemed to work pretty well. Maybe this weapon wasn’t too bad, right?

Except that it was. His team lost the match, and he only inked around 350p. Even Alya had done better than him, and she hadn’t been trying at all.

He Super Jumped straight back to Ammo Knights and stormed in. “Tikki, I need a new weapon! This one’s too hard to manage!”

“How many battles have you tried with it?” she asked.

“Well, one… but…”

“Then try some more. Every weapon takes a while to get used to. With some more practice you’ll be able to figure out what works and get the best out of it.”

“But it’s so annoying! This weapon has terrible range and it doesn’t have enough stealth to make up for it! And it’s hard not to ink over turf that your team’s already inked, so you can’t get many points! And–”

“Keep trying,” Tikki said firmly.

“Ohhhh, fine. But I hate this weapon. It’s useless.”

“Why didn’t you test it out in the shooting range first before using it in battle?”

“What, that old place? It’s not very helpful. It doesn’t give me a real sense of a battle situation.”

Tikki sighed. “If you say so.”

“Anyway, fine then, I’ll keep using the Splat Roller for a while. But if things don’t improve then will you please sell me another weapon?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you.”

Nath left the shop again, feeling frustrated. Was this how every newbie started out? Surely not! Maybe some people were just naturally fresher than others. He just wished he could be one of them.


	3. Charging up

After several more lost battles, Nath finally persuaded Tikki to sell him a Charger weapon – in other words, a sniper rifle-style weapon. She gave him the Splat Charger, with Splat Bombs and Bomb Rush as its Sub and Special, and told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to practise with it if he wanted to be any good.

“Charger weapons are difficult to get the hang of,” she said. “Don’t think that just because you’ve got long range, it’ll be easy to pick off your opponents. It can be very frustrating to use a weapon like this. Especially in Turf Wars.”

“Yeah, but at least this way people won’t keep splatting me from a distance,” Nath pointed out.

“Only if you’re good enough. Keep your wits about you, and don’t forget to leave an escape trail of ink, and–”

“Fine, whatever, thanks.”

Nath quickly rushed off with his new weapon, not in the mood for hearing Tikki’s long-winded, grandmotherly advice. Even hanging out with Rose was better than this – though Rose seemed to tire out after just one match and wouldn’t participate anywhere near as much as Nath would have liked.

He went into the lobby in Inkopolis Tower alone and joined a team full of strangers. They were transported to Moray Towers, a battle stage full of narrow zigzags that was high above the ground, overlooking the city. It was absolutely perfect for Charger weapons.

“This is gonna be good,” Nath said to himself, grinning. He looked aside and noticed that one of his teammates, a huge, intimidating guy with a cut through one eyebrow, was glaring down at him.

“If the other team has an E-Litre, we’re done for,” the guy grumbled, his voice low and gruff. Nath checked the inbuilt computer system to see that this guy was called Ivan, and he was lugging around a giant weapon called a Heavy Splatling.

“It’s okay, I’m a sniper too,” Nath said, holding up his Splat Charger.

“Not good enough. If your Charger doesn’t have a scope on it, you won’t have enough range to do much good. Unless you have an E-Litre 3K, which you don’t. There’s a reason this place is nicknamed E-Litre Towers, you know.”

Nath frowned. Surely having a scope on a Charger didn’t make that much difference, did it? And what if someone attacked you while you were looking through the scope? Sure it would be easier to aim, but you wouldn’t even be able to see what was going on around you. It would just be distracting. Nah, a Splat Charger was probably way better than a Splatterscope.

He looked back at the computer system to see the opposing team assembling at their base…

Uh oh.

The Slaughter Squad.

“What did I tell you?” Ivan muttered. “Max ‘Unsplattable’ Kanté and his E-Litre 3K Scope are gonna make sure we lose.”

“Well… I have long range too…”

“So do I, but we’re no match for him.”

Pfff, how pessimistic! This Ivan guy sounded like a bore.

The signal played for the match to begin. Nath pressed the trigger on his weapon to see that only a drop of ink fell out. Oh wait – he was supposed to charge it up first, wasn’t he? That was how Charger weapons worked. He held his finger down on the trigger for a few seconds, waiting for the beeping sound telling him that it was fully charged, then he let go and watched as a beautiful green line of ink shot away into the distance.

Nice!

His teammates had already started inking along the narrow zigzag paths leading down to the central area of the battle stage, so Nath transformed into squid form and jumped ahead. He remembered there being a spot that overlooked the central area which would be perfect for sniping from.

Aha, there it was! He settled himself there and then had a look around. Someone from the other team – Alix, probably – had already used a big purple Inkstrike in the centre of the stage. Nath charged up a shot and started covering it back up in thin lines of his own team’s ink.

_Thwack!_

He was suddenly splatted by none other than Max, who had been aiming at him from the sniper perch on the other side.

Well, two could play at that game! Nath hurried straight back to his sniper perch after respawning, and aimed a shot at where he knew Max was hiding. Unfortunately he missed. It was kind of hard to see from such a distance. Maybe a scope wouldn’t have been such a bad idea after all?

Looking down at the trail of ink his shot had left, it looked like he hadn’t even been able to reach the other sniper perch from here. Ugh, what was the point of using a Splat Charger if its range wasn’t even that good? Nath was about to go back into squid form and swim into the central area so he could reach better, when he was splatted again by Max.

No! Now he really had to get that guy back. He swam back to his sniper perch, then jumped off that platform into the central area. Okay, so it was a bit exposed here, but the thing about Charger weapons was that you could see exactly where they were aiming. They always had a little laser beam of light pointing out of them while charging up. So if Max was aiming at him again, then he would just be able to move out of the way. Right?

He saw Max’s charger line pointing at the ground several metres in front of him. Okay then, he must have been aiming somewhere else. Good. No need to move.

Nath aimed back up at Max’s sniper perch, knowing that Splat Chargers charge up shots far quicker than E-Litres, so surely he would be able to get Max before Max could get him–

At the last second, Max suddenly swung his weapon up and pointed it straight at Nath, splatting him.

No way. _No way!_

Max had _tricked him?_ By pretending to be aiming somewhere else? That was just cruel!

Absolutely seething, Nath respawned and jumped down the zigzag ramps as quick as he could. He just had to splat Max back. He didn’t care if Max was considered “Unsplattable”, he had to do it. That guy was too annoying. And if he was going to resort to dirty tricks, then so was Nath.

He jumped into the central area and pretended to be aiming a shot at the wall. Once it was charged, he turned his weapon and quickly aimed for the sniper perch instead.

And missed. Quite badly.

How had Max made it seem so easy? Sniping was hard! And how were you supposed to aim that fast, anyway?

Well, whatever. Time to try again. Of course, now Max would know his location from his bungled shot, so he dipped into squid form and swam off to the side a little.

Only to be splatted by a Seeker from Kim, who had reached this area and was rapidly inking everything in sight.

Oh yes, of course – this was a Turf War. Nath was supposed to be inking turf, not killing people. Time to focus on that for now. Max could wait.

Respawning back at the base, Nath this time ran down the zigzags the long way, looking for turf to ink. It seemed that the reason the central area had been oddly empty was because the opposing team had used one of the side towers to access this half of the map without needing to go through the centre, and a savage battle had been going on here without Nath even having noticed. There was plenty of turf here that needed re-inking.

Nath started shooting long columns of ink down the ramp. Huh, who said that Chargers weren’t good at inking turf? When it came to Moray Towers, these weapons totally excelled!

And there, at the opposite end of the ramp, was an enemy. Judging by the pink hair and being half the height of everyone else, it was Alix. And if she was on this narrow ramp too, then surely it would be easy to splat her!

Nath charged up a shot and took aim. She simply laughed and dodged the attack, inking more turf and running up the ramp. He aimed another shot.

“Missed again!” she said, a wickedly malicious grin on her face.

Nath tried to charge up another shot, but noticed alarmingly that she was already getting close enough to be able to shoot at him with her own weapon. He remembered his Sub and threw a Splat Bomb, but it fell off the narrow sides of the ramp and into the abyss below.

Yikes. Time to escape.

He went into squid form and turned around to swim away, only to see that he had forgotten to leave an escape trail of ink, like Tikki had told him to. Dang it, did that bug always have to be right about everything?

The worst thing was that even when he was inevitable splatted, it was not by Alix. It was by _Max_. Somehow that guy had jumped into the central area and got close enough to reach. Was he aiming for Nath on purpose?

By the time Nath respawned, Kim was within sight, running around and inking everything. Ivan was standing far back and throwing out a barrage of shots with his Heavy Splatling, but Kim cheekily sending Seeker after Seeker forced him to keep moving and not have enough time to shoot consistently.

Wait. Nath could reach Kim from here, right? He began charging up a shot. Kim spotted the laser line and went into squid form, hiding away somewhere. He emerged rather far off and began shooting again, and Nath had to recharge his shot from scratch.

But if Kim had been swimming around in squid form, why hadn’t Nath been able to see him? Usually it was possible to at least see ripples in the ink when someone was swimming. Unless… it was an ability…

Rose had explained that to him once, though not very well. Something about certain clothing, or “gear” as it was called here, could give you particular powers, called “abilities”. Some made it that you could refill your ink tank faster, some gave you better defence stats, some gave you better attack…

And some made it impossible for people to see you while you were swimming in ink.

Kim had that, surely. He must have had that. And how useful would that be? Nath decided then and there that he needed new gear. He didn’t look fresh enough yet anyway.

The rest of the match was just as unpleasant. Nath resorted to standing on the home base and trying to ink turf from there, though Charger weapons were really not good at that. It just took so long to charge up, and only released such a thin line of ink! How the heck was anyone supposed to play decently with these?

The match results were not a surprise.

“The purple team wins, as if anyone was surprised by that,” the judging cat – some guy called “Plagg”, apparently – said at the end of the match, waving a flag at the opponents. “Anyway, don’t stay here too long. Next match begins in five minutes.” He vanished again.

Nath was half tempted to throw his Splat Charger on the ground and kick it. How was he not good at this weapon either? Nothing had felt right so far! Surely there must be something out there for him?

“…and I didn’t get splatted at all this match, so take that!”

“Yeah, but how many people did you splat? And how many people did I splat? I’m just better and you know it.”

“Well I inked more turf!”

“If you had used an Aerospray MG too then you’d have inked less than me!”

“Are we really doing this again? I already told you, I’m better at inking turf, and you’re better at splatting, so just stop rubbing it in all the time…”

It was Alix and Kim, arguing again. Their voices faded as they wandered off into the distance, although Nath could see Kim pushing Alix so hard she almost fell off the side of the ramp.

Nath was just about to leave when he saw that Max was watching him. Well, maybe. He couldn’t quite tell. Max always wore big black sunglasses that made it impossible to see where he was really looking. But he seemed to be looking right at Nath, almost like he was… calculating something.

It gave him a sudden funny fluttering feeling in his chest. He looked away quickly, pretending to be fiddling with his Splat Charger. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Max finally go somewhere else and Super Jump away.

Phew… Nath wasn’t sure why Max made him feel so weird. Was this a rivalry thing? Did they have a rivalry now? Maybe that was a good thing. A lot of fresh inklings seemed to have rivals – like Alya and Chloé.

Fresh! Of course! He was meant to go buy some new gear!

He Super Jumped back to Inkopolis Plaza, landing right in a crowd of inklings. There was one just in front of him, turned the other way, wearing what had to be the coolest beret he had ever seen. It was so fresh! He just knew something like that would suit him very well. He needed to buy it.

Cooler Heads – that was the shop where everyone bought head gear, right? He pushed aside a bunch of squids and rushed in.

Nath had never met the little anemone girl who ran the shop, but he had seen her through the windows. She had bright, colourful hair that spiralled out in every direction. He doubted that any of the hats she sold would even fit over that.

“Hello, welcome to Cooler Heads,” she said to him. “I’m Mylène. What would you like to buy?”

“I’m looking for a beret,” he said.

“We’re sold out of berets, sorry about that. There was only limited stock.”

“When will they be back in stock?”

“Um, I’m not sure. Sorry.”

What? No! There was no way he was giving up that beret for anything!

The door of the shop opened and in walked Ivan, grumpy as ever. As soon as he saw Mylène his face lit up into such a bright smile he looked almost unrecognizable.

“Mylène!”

“Ivan!”

Mylène ran over and jumped up to hug him. She was so small that her feet were left dangling off the ground.

“Ivan, what are you doing here? I thought you said you were doing Turf Wars all afternoon!”

“I was, until it turned out the Slaughter Squad had the same idea.”

“Aww, Ivan!” Mylène gave him a kiss on the cheek. “That’s perfectly understandable. If I were an inkling and if I did battles, I would hate being against them too!”

“Can I just stay with you this afternoon instead, dear?”

“Of course, sweetie!”

Dear? Sweetie? Nath did a double take. Surely this cute little anemone girl was not dating some weird, grumpy giant like Ivan??? But the way those two were snuggling up together, being more sickeningly sweet than Rose’s entire personality…

It was unfair. How was it that a guy like Ivan could get a girlfriend? He wasn’t fresh in the slightest!

Unless… simply having a girlfriend was enough to make him fresher?

Yes, that was it. Nath got it. If he wanted to be fresher, he needed a girlfriend. And more importantly, he needed that beret.

“Bye,” he said flatly, leaving the shop without those two lovebirds even noticing.

Now, where was that beret squid? Maybe if he asked them, they would sell it to him? No, no, he couldn’t talk to a squid as fresh as that, and no one would ever part with a beret that magnificent… Maybe he could ask someone if they knew where else to buy it from? Perhaps…

Getting completely lost, he stumbled into what seemed to be some dodgy back alley. He got the distinct feeling that he was not supposed to be here. But what if the beret squid was around here? He’d better keep looking.

“Psst.”

Huh? Where did that voice come from?

“Hey. Over here.”

He turned around to see a sea urchin slumped against the wall. She had a mass of black and purple spiky hair, sticking out all over the place, even covering all of one eye like Nath’s hair did. She was beckoning him over with a long, pointy finger.

Should he go? This seemed like the ideal place to get murdered. But then again, he had been losing so many battles lately, it wasn’t like he had anything to lose. He made his way over to the sea urchin and hoped she wasn’t about to stab him.

“Hey. You look like you could use some help.”

“Oh, um, it’s no big deal,” he muttered.

“Alright then, newbie.”

Wait, she could tell that he was a newbie? No, that was bad! Surely with that beret he wouldn’t look like a newbie!  
“Okay, I just saw an inkling with a really cool beret and I want it but the shop doesn’t have it,” he said.

“Then you’ve come to the right place,” the sea urchin said. “My name’s Juleka. If you ever need any gear that the shop doesn’t have, I can always get it for you. Through definitely legal means, of course. For a price.”

A price? What kind of price? He wasn’t going to sell his kidneys for a beret. And definitely legal means? That sounded like a lie.

But he wanted that beret. He wanted it so much. And what would this Juleka think of him if he had the beret? Not a newbie anymore, but an actual fresh squid!

“Alright, what’s the price?”

“A Super Sea Snail.”

“A what?”

“Super Sea Snail. You can win them by competing in Splatfests.”

Splatfests? He had heard of those. Everyone picked one of two teams based on choices between random things, eg food vs water, and then would have battles to prove which team was better. The Squid Sisters ran the festivals. But there wasn’t one scheduled for like, a whole week or something! He couldn’t wait that long!

“Can’t I pay something else?”

“Hmm. 30000 coins.”

“I don’t have that much money!”

“Well then sorry, but you’re not getting your beret.”

Nath kicked the wall. “No no no no no no! Ugh, if only I had won more battles, I might have had enough money! Why won’t Rose just help me? Maybe she would lend me money? I don’t know…”

“Wait. You know Rose? Rose Lavillant?”

“Yeah, why?”

The part of Juleka’s face not obscured by her hair had gone red. “Do you… um… think you could get her number for me? I’ll give you the beret for free if you do that.”

“Why do you want her number?”

Juleka looked at the ground, fiddling with her bangles. “She’s… um… awesome. And I don’t have the guts to tell her in person.”

“You want to ask her out by phone?”

“By text.” Juleka mumbled some more stuff about Rose, too quiet to hear.

“Fine,” Nath said. “I’ll get you her number, and you get me that beret.”

She smiled up at him, and he noticed with alarm that the one eye he could see was bright red. Holy moly… what chance did someone like that have with an angel-type like Rose? Well whatever, that was none of his business. He walked off back towards the less dodgy parts of town.


	4. Do it for Nino

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that Splatoon 2's out, have another chapter! :D

Octarian ink _hurt_.

That was the first thing Marinette found out after entering the kettle in Octo Valley, with Adrien – or Chat Noir, rather – at her side.

The Octotroopers were strange Octarian enemies that seemed to be a single tentacle, or bunch of tentacles, with a face stuck on them. They blasted out globs of toxic purple ink from their weapons. Slow moving, easy to splat, not very bright, situated at large intervals so it was easy to have a rest in between.

But still. Their ink hurt.

“This stuff is impossible to walk through,” Adrien muttered, flinging some green ink from his Krak-On Splat Roller onto the ground ahead to cover up the toxic purple ink.

“It’s a different type of ink,” Marinette replied.

“Indeed, that’s right, buckos!” The voice of Captain Fu echoed through their radios, slightly static. “And if you get splatted with this stuff, it’s curtains for you. There’ll be no respawning from that!”

“It’s alright, we won’t get splatted,” Marinette said. “Isn’t that right, Chat Noir?”

His face paled but he nodded anyway. “Yes that’s right… Ladybug…”

Marinette looked to their path ahead. These underground kettles certainly didn’t look underground from the inside, since the walls were covered in large screens that had sky and scenery on them. It made sense that the Octarians did that – no one would want to look at a grungy cave wall for their lives.

The two heroes carried on along the narrow pathways, trying to avoid falling down the sheer drops on the sides. Every now and then they’d come across another gonkish Octotrooper and it would shoot at them in complete futility. Splatting them was no real challenge. The Octotroopers were not very good at their job. Tiny droplets of their ink did manage to splash onto Marinette occasionally, and it stung, but it was nothing that a quick swim in inkling ink couldn’t heal.

It wasn’t long before the end of the kettle was in sight.

“There’s a butterfly trapped up there!” Captain Fu said, able to see what was going on through the miniature cameras installed in their outfits. “Go get it out of there and bring it back here!”

“Not the Great Butterfly?” Marinette asked.

“No, they won’t guard that one so easily. But they stole more butterflies from us than just that. You’ll have to free as many as possible. That’ll depower their defences enough for you to get further into Octarian territory.”

“And then we can find Nino,” Marinette said, directing that last bit at Adrien. He looked somewhat worried.

“Yep, that’s right!” Fu said. “Anyway, Octotroopers up ahead blocking your path. Give ‘em heck!”

Marinette didn’t even need to think. She ran up and unleashed a barrage of shots from her Hero Shot, hitting the Octotroopers before they could even blink. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Adrien doing the same with his weapon.

There, only a few left now. These remaining Octotroopers had shields up in front of them. Marinette lobbed a Splat Bomb over their heads, causing them to turn around and look, and then she splatted them while they were distracted. Huh, these poor Octotroopers really weren’t too smart. Hopefully they could respawn soon enough considering they were in their home area. She did not like the idea of killing off these Octarians for real.

Within a few more seconds, all the Octotroopers had been wiped out. Marinette leapt up onto the platform and grabbed the butterfly from where it had been trapped. It was concealed in a little yellow bubble and seemed to flutter excitedly when it saw that she was rescuing it.

“Good job, buckos! Now get that butterfly back here and we can start working on the next kettle!”

Adrien had left a Squid Beakon back near the entrance to the kettle so the two of them Super Jumped back to it, then climbed up out of the kettle and back into fresh air. Captain Fu was waiting there to greet them.

“Nice work!” He stepped forwards and took the butterfly off Marinette. “The next kettle’s gotta be around here somewhere, go have a look for it. I’ll go and put this back where it belongs.” He shuffled off with the butterfly.

“Well, we did it,” Marinette said, smiling at Adrien. “We did a good job.”

He shook his head. “No. _You_ did a good job. I really didn’t get to do much.”

“What? Of course you did! You’re fantastic!”

“Not compared to you!”

She put a hand on his shoulder, looking him right in the eyes. “Is this because I’m a rank S+?”

“Huh? N-no, of course not… I just…” He looked down at the ground. “I really didn’t do that much. I want to help out more. I’ll do better next time. You’re just so fantastic, and so talented and so good at what you do! You’re amazing, Marinette!”

“It’s taken a long time of hard work to get as good as I am now. You’ll get there too soon enough. I know you haven’t been in Inkopolis for as long as I have, but you’re doing amazingly so far.”

He smiled, looking a little better now. “Thank you Marinette. I know we’re not supposed to tell anyone about what we’re doing here, but do you think my father would be proud of me?”

“Of course!”

“And would Nino be proud of us?”

“Nino would be _super_ proud of us!”

“I can’t wait to see him again!”

“Me too.” Marinette turned and looked at the rest of the valley behind them. “Ready to go looking for more kettles?”

“Yeah, let’s do that!”

 

 

 

“Hey Rose, some dodgy emo sea urchin called Juleka wants your number because she’s too shy to ask you out in person.”

No point beating about the bush. At least this way Rose wouldn’t mistakenly think Nath wanted her number for himself.

“Oh, Juleka!” Rose smiled sweetly, mumbling through a mouthful of ice cream. “I’ve seen her! She’s such a cutie pie, isn’t she?”

“Uh… nah. Not really.”

Rose giggled. “Well, I would be very glad to talk to her in person, but if that would make her uncomfortable then she can certainly have my phone number. Here – please take this to her!”

Rose quickly took a piece of paper from her pocket and scribbled down a number, leaning on the table of the café in Arowana Mall that they were at. She handed it to Nath.

“Thanks,” he muttered, getting up to leave. “Uh, do you want me to pay for the ice cream, or–”

“It’s alright, I’ll do it! You go give that number to her!”

“Thanks, Rose.”

Well, maybe Rose wasn’t that bad all the time. Having an overly sweet, polite friend paid off sometimes. Nath needed to save up as much money as he could for new weapons, after all.

Already back in Inkopolis Plaza, it occurred to him he couldn’t quite remember the way to Juleka’s little black-market hideout. Which of these alleys led to it? He looked around for someone to ask – preferably not someone too fresh and intimidating.

Plagg the cat was lying on his little pedestal in the corner, watching him. Huh, maybe he would know.

“Plagg, can I ask you something?” Nath said. “Which way do I go to find Juleka?”

“That way,” Plagg said, raising a finger in a certain direction and then dropping it. “Why, do you want some new abilities or something?”

“I ordered a new beret from her and I have to go pay her.”

“Oof. Her prices are steep, but she’s good. She can even change abilities on gear if you pay her enough. Say your shoes have attack bonuses but you want defence bonuses? She can do it.”

“Wait, really? Thanks for letting me know!”

“No problem, kid.” Plagg yawned. “Say, you’ve been working real hard lately, doing a load of battles and not getting much fun out of it. You deserve something good. Here, take a Super Sea Snail.”

Plagg reached out from behind him and put one straight into Nath’s hands, winking.

“Thank you!”

“Seriously, no problem. I’ve got a surplus of them and the next Splatfest is pretty far off. You need it more than I do. Now go pay for that beret of yours!”

Nath nodded, then ran off down the alley that Plagg had indicated.

Wow! A real Super Sea Snail! How cool was that? At least Plagg was being nice, and not treating him like some kind of newbie. In fact, Nath could just pay Juleka with this instead, right? But then what would he do with Rose’s number?

Well… once he got that beret, he would be fresh, right? And he had deduced earlier that having a girlfriend would make him even fresher… so if he bought the beret with the Super Sea Snail, then used Rose’s number to ask her out… after all, Rose wasn’t that bad, he’d get used to her boundless optimism soon enough… and surely she’d like him more than someone like Juleka…

And there Juleka was, sitting right there in exactly the same spot as she had been before.

“I got your beret,” she said, hanging it on the tip of her finger and waving it in front of his face. “Now where’s the number?”

“Um actually, I have a Super Sea Snail,” Nath said. “Here you go.”

Juleka pushed it away. “I don’t care about the Snail. I want the number.”

“Ugh, fine. I’ve got it. Here you are.”

Juleka took the piece of paper, then looked up at Nath with that fierce one red eye. “Are you telling me you had the number, but you weren’t going to give it to me? You were trying to keep it for yourself?”

“Um…”

“For your insolence, I’m gonna take both the number AND the Sea Snail.”

She snatched it right out of Nath’s hand before he could protest.

“And here’s your lousy beret.”

She chucked it at his feet and turned away, pulling her phone out of her pocket to add Rose’s number.

Nath picked up the beret and put it on his head, feeling somewhat annoyed and guilty at the same time. Dating Rose probably wasn’t a good idea anyway, she was way too annoying to have as anything other than a friend. So was Juleka. Those two would be perfect for each other. Forget about interfering there.

He went and stood in the corner with his arms folded, trying to look fresh, while he sorted out his thoughts. He had this beret now. Getting a girlfriend would be easier. Or boyfriend? He shouldn’t rule that out, not after knowing that Juleka and Rose were into each other. But if he did have a girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever, it would have to be someone he could actually get along with. Someone who understood him. Someone who actually wanted to do battles, just like him. Someone relatable.

A small, hooded figure walked over to Juleka. Great, another dodgy person. These back alleys really were a great place for being murdered.

“Hey Juleka? Can I get another ability reroll on these stupid shoes? I need defence up or Kim won’t stop making fun of me for getting splatted all the time…”

That voice! Why was it so familiar? He could have sworn he had heard it in battle before…

Against the Slaughter Squad…

Of course – it was Alix. No one else was that short. He just hadn’t realized it was her when she had a hoodie on, covering all that bright pink hair.

Hang on. She was talking to Juleka? Juleka knew her? And Juleka knew Nath, too! That was like, one degree of separation from one of the toughest, freshest, most infamous inklings around! Did this mean he could actually speak to her? Should he?

But no… there was no way he could just talk to one of the Slaughter Squad. That was unthinkable!

What about Juleka, though? She wasn’t even an inkling, she was just some sea urchin running a shady business, and clearly she could talk to the Slaughter Squad. So why not Nath? They were fellow inklings, just like him!

But they were so cool. Too cool. Even with this beret, he was nowhere near their level. Better to just let it be.

Well, this felt familiar. Back home in Calamari County, after Mireille and Aurore had left, he had been too shy to talk to anyone else. They probably didn’t want to talk to him anyway. He was used to feeling lonely. At least here in Inkopolis, there was a chance to improve himself. Perhaps he would be popular too someday. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to get this jealousy under control.

 

 

 

Marinette and Adrien’s adventures through Octo Valley continued. They rescued butterflies from several more kettles, venturing further and further into Octarian territory as they did so. The enemies became more difficult to defeat too, using smarter tactics and better armour. It was not easy.

Adrien just kept reminding himself of one thing. _Do it for Nino._ Everything they went through, it was to save Nino. To make sure he was okay. He didn’t deserve to be kidnapped from home by Octarians and kept away from everyone he cared about for over a month! No – they had to rescue him. They just had to. No matter how tough it was.

Days passed through their adventures, and they finally came to a kettle that looked bigger than the rest, even from the outside. As soon as they entered, something looked different.

The entire kettle was just a large, circular arena with a metallic cube near the back. In the centre was a rather large looking butterfly – though not large enough to have been the Great Butterfly from the top of Inkopolis Tower. As soon as they took a step towards it, a giant tentacle sprouted from the cube and grabbed the butterfly, pulling it inside the cube. The cube itself then rose up in the air and landed with a thud in the centre to reveal a giant purple face on the side of it.

“Uh-oh buckos, that’s the Mighty Octostomp,” Fu warned through the radio. “I believe it’s what the kids are calling a ‘boss level’? Anyway, you’d better defeat it if you want to get that butterfly and rescue your friend. Good luck!”

A boss level? Adrien shuddered involuntarily. He was nowhere near as good as Marinette and he knew it. This was not going to be easy. But he had to do it. He had to do it for Nino.

The Octostomp, giant and looming, began shuffling across the ground towards them, leaving purple ink in its wake. Marinette tried shooting at it but that didn’t achieve anything. The Octostomp suddenly jumped high up in the air, almost directly above them.

“Chat, look out!” Marinette called, grabbing his arm and pulling him aside. The next second, the Octostomp had thudded back down to the ground, landing on its face and splashing purple ink everywhere. A few drops got onto Adrien and he quickly brushed them off. Octarian ink was something he could never get used to.

“Look, it’s stuck! Let’s use that!”

Marinette had already run around to the side of the Octostomp and begun shooting ink at it, leaving long green trails up the wall. Without thinking, Adrien transformed into squid form and swam up the ink until he reached the top of the cube. The tentacle was here, sticking out of a hole. Adrien whacked his Krak-On Splat Roller onto the ground and flung ink at the tentacle as much as he could, hoping that would do something.

After several seconds, the tentacle exploded in a burst of green ink. Yes!

“Ladybug, look! I did it!” Adrien waved back down at her.

“Watch out! It’s going to do something!”

Looking back, he saw that purple ink was now gushing out of the hole where the tentacle had been before, and the entire cube was shaking. He quickly Super Jumped back down to Marinette on the ground, just in time. The Octostomp grew another tentacle and thrust it out of the hole at the same time as jumping back into a position where it could attack from, shedding several of its metallic wall panels as it did so.

“It can’t have unlimited tentacles,” Marinette muttered, frowning. “We’ve got to keep destroying them. It’ll be harder to get up there again though, since some of the panels on the side are missing…”

The Octostomp was shuffling towards them again, seemingly faster this time. It must have been angry. Marinette and Adrien moved away again, avoiding all the purple ink it was leaving. Sure enough, the Octostomp repeated its trick of leaping into the air and faceplanting into the ground.

The side wall of the cube was a lot harder to get up now, considering that half the panels were missing. Marinette inked as much of it as she could, but the Octostomp got up again and started attacking them before Adrien could climb up.

“You distract it, I’ll climb up this time,” Marinette told him.

Yeah, that made sense. Marinette was way better at everything anyway. He already knew that.

The next part of the battle mostly consisted of Adrien trying to stay out of the way of all the toxic ink that seemed to be raining down everywhere. Once the Octostomp was stuck face down in the ground again, Marinette swam up the side and shot at its tentacle until it exploded, then jumped back down to the ground as it once more regrew a tentacle and righted itself. Now it looked _really_ angry.

“I think we’re almost there,” Marinette said, giving Adrien a quick thumbs up before running off to dodge another attack.

Things were getting really difficult now. So many panels had fallen off the side that it would be extremely difficult to swim up there. In that case he would definitely leave that to Marinette. She would be much better at it.

The Octostomp moved faster than ever, spraying so much purple ink around that just staying safe was a real task, let alone trying to move around. Marinette couldn’t even get to the side of the Octostomp when it had gone face down. There was just too much toxic ink everywhere.

“I’ll use my Kraken,” Adrien said.

“What?”

“My Kraken! My Special Weapon! The gauge is filled up, I can use it…”

“Will it work though? This is Octarian ink!”

“Do we have a choice?”

Marinette shook her head. “Alright, fine… but be careful! Wait until it next faceplants, then use your Kraken to swim up its side and destroy the tentacle.”

“Got it.”

In Turf Wars and Ranked Battles, Krakens were a fantastic Special Weapon to have. It turned the inkling into a giant invincible squid for a few seconds, one that could swim through enemy ink at top speed with no repercussions, and could attack brutally and kill in one hit.

Would it work now?

Well, he had to try. For Nino.

The Octostomp leapt up into the air, then smashed itself down face-first onto the floor. Now was his chance.

He activated his Special Weapon and turned into the familiar green Kraken. It felt good to be invincible!

Surging forwards, he swam through the toxic ink like it was nothing. It was easy to get up the side of the Octostomp now that he was so big. And there – there was the tentacle! He leaped forwards and thrust at it, using his killer attack to obliterate it.

And yet… something was not right.

He felt faint. Sick. Dizzy.

Using the Kraken did not usually do that to him. Sure, it was tiring, and usually left him feeling a little out of it. But this? This was something else.

He could feel it now. The toxic ink that he had swam through. It was taking its time, but was very definitely affecting him. Starting to hurt now. Curling around his entire body like a vine, suffocating him.

As if from a distance, he felt himself sliding off the top of the Octostomp as it raised back up in the air. Saw it exploding into pieces. Saw the butterfly gently floating down into the centre of the arena, ready to be rescued. Was that real? He couldn’t even tell, not when his head was spinning so much.

His Kraken transformation was on the verge of ending now, he could feel it. And then would the pain hit full force? It was already bad enough as it was. So bad that his vision was going blurry. So bad that he couldn’t see, he couldn’t hear, he couldn’t think.

The transformation ended. He blacked out.

 

* * *

 

 

_“Hey Adrien?”_

_“Yeah?”_

_“I don’t know if it was a great idea to bring smoothies to this place, it’s so dusty here…”_

_He can’t help but giggle. Smoothie dates are always the best, no matter where they are. Even if construction work dust gets into everything._

_“You know Adrien, I once did something really stupid here.”_

_“Really? More than usual?”_

_A loving punch in the arm for a sassy reply like that. At least he can actually make sassy replies around someone like this. Usually, saying what’s on his mind is not an option for him._

_“Yeah, more than usual. A lot more than usual. Being stupid is my strong point, and I really hecked up here once…”_

_Adrien shuffles a little closer. “Really? What was it?”_

_“Well… I threw something over the side. In the water. And now I wish I didn’t.”_

_“Why did you do that?”_

_“Because I’m an idiot! You know I told you about that person who hates me? Well yeah, it’s partly because of this.”_

_Adrien peers over the edge of the bridge. “Well maybe there’s a way you can fish out whatever you threw in…”_

_“Really? You think so?”_

_“Of course! You’re so cool! You can do anything you put your mind to! I wish I had your kind of motivation!”_

_“Aww, Adrien…”_

_It’s no surprise when he’s pulled straight into a hug. It happens so often. Having someone who loves him like this, is… nice. So nice._

_“Adrien, you know I love you, right?”_

_“Of course…”_

_“In that case I’m buying the smoothies next time. And we’re not coming here to drink them!”_

_He looks up to see the flash of playfulness in those beautiful, deep, grey eyes. It melts his heart._

 

* * *

 

 

“Adrien? Adrien! Oh thank goodness, you’re coming round… are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay!”

Eyes…

He opened his own eyes to see a pair staring right back at him, wide in fear.

But no… those were not his beloved’s grey eyes. These were bright blue eyes.

“You’re awake! Oh, _Adrien!_ You had me worried there!”

Oh yes, of course. It was Marinette. She leaned down and hugged him.

Wait, where was he? What was going on? His brain was still filled with the remains of memories, things he must have been dreaming about while unconscious. Now he was lying on the floor in the middle of the arena. Once Marinette had let go of him, he saw that she was holding the butterfly.

“What happened?” he asked, his voice coming out as a croak.

“You used your Kraken to defeat the Octostomp, but then you fainted,” she replied. “That Octarian ink must have done a number on you. You’ve been out for five minutes. But at least you’re okay! Wait, you’re okay, right?”

He nodded, sitting up. “Yeah, I’m okay. Don’t worry.”

“Phew, I’m glad to hear that.”

“And so am I!” Captain Fu said through the radio. “I’d suggest only using your Kraken in emergency situations if it’s gonna knock you out like that. And now that you’ve got that butterfly, you’d better get out of there and back here.”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Marinette said. She stood up and then grabbed Adrien’s hand and pulled him up too. He still felt a little dizzy, but it was going away. Good.

“How long do you think it’ll take before we find Nino?” he asked.

“I have no idea.”

“I miss home.”

“Really? It’s only been a few days!”

“I know…”

Marinette hugged him again. “Don’t worry, we’ll do this as quickly as possible. You’re doing such a great job so far. I could never have done this without your help.”

That made him feel a lot better. He followed as Marinette climbed out of the kettle, over to Fu’s shack, and gave him the butterfly.

Missing home? That wasn’t _exactly_ right. It wasn’t his house he missed, or his strict father, or even the battles he used to take part in. It was a certain person he missed. Nino, obviously, but someone else. Someone who hadn’t gone missing. Someone who he had shared smoothies with on Hammerhead Bridge one day…


	5. The final Splatfest

It wasn’t long before the next Splatfest was announced in Inkopolis. The difference was that this time, it was the final Splatfest. The Squid Sisters were becoming too busy to regularly host them.

“It’s so unfair!” Nath complained to Rose as they walked towards the voting booth to pick their teams. “I didn’t get here very long ago and I’m only ever going to experience one Splatfest while everyone else got to participate in loads!”

“At least this is the most interesting one!” Rose said. “Usually our team choices were things like Barbarian vs Ninja, or North Pole vs South Pole. But this time? Mireille vs Aurore! That’s much more exciting!”

Nath sighed. “I don’t even know who I’ll pick. They’re both equal to me.”

“Same! I’m going to feel ever so bad for having to choose between them!”

Of course Rose would. She was just too nice for her own good. Nath was slowly starting to feel weirdly protective over her, like a little sister, and he wasn’t sure he liked it.

There was the voting booth up ahead, where people picked their teams and were given a “Splatfest Tee” to wear for the duration of the event to signify which side they were supporting. Nath was about to go up and just flip a coin to pick a random side when he noticed who the inklings standing at the booth were.

The Slaughter Squad.

“Let’s just stay back a second,” he muttered, grabbing Rose’s arm and pulling her aside.

The Slaughter Squad seemed to have trouble choosing too. They didn’t appear to notice that they were completely blocking off the voting booth from anyone else who wanted to vote and had already made up their mind.

“What do you think, Max?” Kim asked.

Max just shrugged, his sunglasses obscuring his expression but body language betraying that he seemed rather bored.

“Mireille does tend to always win,” Alix said.

“Yeah, duh, we all know that. No need to point out the obvious, jeez.”

“Alright, I was just saying!”

“So anyway, I think we should pick Team Mireille. Everyone always picks Aurore’s team so the multiplier will be in our favour and whatever other maths stuff Max told us about last time.”

“But if everyone knows that Mireille always wins, and this is the final Splatfest, then more people might pick Mireille and the multiplier might boost Aurore’s team instead…”

“Oh shut up,” Kim snapped, shoving her aside. “We’re voting Team Mireille and that’s final. Right Max?”

Max just shrugged again, very much looking like he was stifling a yawn.

“Okay, that’s settled. Team Mireille it is.”

The three of them pressed the left side buttons on the machine and were given three magenta-coloured Splatfest Tees.

“I hate these stupid t-shirts,” Alix said, scrunching hers into a ball.

“Of course you do, you’re way too small to fit in them properly.”

“Actually I hate them because all the abilities I worked so hard to earn on my hoodie just go to waste for these two days when we’re forced to wear these instead–”

“I don’t care. Let’s go.”

Nath watched the Slaughter Squad walk off, suspecting that he might have been gripping Rose’s arm just a little too tightly. How were the Slaughter Squad so fresh? How did they become so good? Was it practice? Luck? Were they just born like that?

Well, he suspected in Kim and Alix’s cases it might be luck and practice. But Max? Max “Unsplattable” Kanté? That guy just _oozed_ freshness, so easily, so _effortlessly_ , with his E-Litre 3K Scope slung over his shoulder, that 3-star triple Damage Up jacket, those sunglasses catching glints of the light from the sky and buildings around them, the way the sun seemed to shine its rays on him specifically, basking him in some kind of ethereal glow like a sort of immortal omnipotent being–

Nath looked away quickly, blushing. He hadn’t realized he was staring.

“Have you decided on a team yet?” Rose asked, distracting him from his rather overactive mind.

“Hm?... Oh, yeah…” He loosened his grip slightly and led her over to the voting booth. “I’m picking Team Mireille. I don’t want to lose my only Splatfest, and if she always wins, well…”

“Good choice!” Rose said, beaming up at him. “I think I’ll pick Mireille too! Then the two of us can be on the same team.”

He smiled back, feeling oddly comforted at the thought of Rose being his teammate. She was pretty much still his only friend here. It was good to have her around.

They cast their votes, then were given Splatfest Tees to wear. The actual Splatfest would begin the next day, so they didn’t have to wear them until then. Meanwhile in the plaza, a large stage was being set up near the television booth. Apparently every Splatfest, the Squid Sisters would perform their songs standing up on here. Nath couldn’t wait to see it. Of course he’d heard them perform live before – he had been there to watch them win the Youth Folk-Singing Contest in the first place – but here in Inkopolis, where they were celebrities, it would feel much more exciting.

“Oh! I’ve got a new message!” Rose pulled her phone out of her pocket.

“Let me guess, it’s from Juleka?” Nath asked. Juleka seemed to be the only person Rose got messages from these days.

“It is, it is! And oh listen… she’s asking me if I’d want to get a coffee… that’s so sweet…”

“You don’t even like coffee,” Nath pointed out.

“I know, but still! It’s the thought that counts!”

“Have you even met Juleka before? In person?”

“Of course I have!” Rose frowned at him, looking slightly annoyed for once. “I know I don’t tend to battle much, but I have asked her to update my gear with more ability slots before. I’ve spoken to her a lot. She’s just _shy_ , she doesn’t like going out of her way to talk to people. It doesn’t mean I can’t get to know her well. And where better than a coffee date at Arowana Mall?”

She had a kind of fire in her eyes that he hadn’t seen before. Huh, she really cared about Juleka, didn’t she?

“You should ask her to be your girlfriend,” he said on a whim.

“You think so? I mean, I would love to, but… she’s… a sea urchin…”

“No one bats an eyelid at Mylène the anemone and Ivan the inkling.”

“True! You’re right, maybe I should ask Juleka!” She giggled a little. “So, what caused your sudden dramatic turn-around, Nath? According to Juleka you weren’t even willing to give her my number at first…”

Oh drat, Rose knew about that? How embarrassing.

“I was just being stupid,” he said quickly. “Seriously though, you and Juleka deserve each other. You both seem to like each other a lot, so why not?”

“Aww, Nath!” Rose hugged him. “Do you really think she likes me back?”

“Well why else is she asking you on a coffee date to Arowana Mall?”

“Good point! Anyway, I’d better reply and then head off to go find her. I’ll see you later, okay?”

She started typing away on her phone as she walked off.

Well, now what? Nath found himself wishing he had more friends. People often tended to go battling in groups, but he just wasn’t close enough with anyone else. It wasn’t like Rose ever battled much anyway.

He sighed, watching all the other inklings milling around in the area. Why couldn’t he just talk to them? He had always been so shy, so reserved, so quiet. And now, here in this city, he wasn’t fresh enough either. How long was it going to take?

 

 

 

 

Octo Valley was slowly becoming more unforgiving as the Octarians were improving their forces. Some of the foes that Marinette and Adrien had to face were much more difficult than before, with advanced weaponry that could only have been stolen from the inklings. How was that possible? Did they get the information from Nino? And where were they keeping him? How long would it be until he could be found?

The most difficult of the Octarian enemies so far were the Octolings. They were essentially the Octarian versions of inklings – humanoid creatures that could shift into octopus form at will and swim through their own ink, with weapons and bombs just like the inklings used. It was far more tiring to fight them than any of the other, simpler Octarian enemies.

“This kettle looks a lot like Kelp Dome,” Marinette said to Adrien as they entered a new area. “It’s like they’ve copied it.”

“I was thinking the same thing…”

“Beware of the Octolings!” Fu warned them through the radio. “There’ll be plenty ahead, no doubt!”

“It’s no problem,” Marinette said. “We know this course inside out. Adrien, you go right. I’ll go left. We’ll meet back in the centre. If you need any help or find the butterfly before me, just let me know by radio.”

“Are you sure we should split up?” Adrien asked.

“It’ll be fine.” Marinette smiled at him, hoping she looked encouraging. “You can do it. Octolings are just like inklings, right? Pretend it’s a Turf War or Ranked Battle and you’re just splatting your opponents. I’ll be close by to help if you need it.”

“Alright. Thanks, Marinette.”

He put his Krak-On Splat Roller on the ground and began running off down one of the side paths. Marinette turned to the left and headed the other way.

It wasn’t difficult at first. Sure, Octolings were tougher than other Octarian enemies. But Marinette was a battle veteran, she was used to difficult situations. This kind of thing didn’t feel particularly out of the ordinary for her. She splatted Octoling after Octoling, keeping her eyes out for the butterfly, trying not to feel too guilty. Octolings really did look like inklings to her. At least they would respawn – though hopefully not too soon.

She had reached the opposite side of the dome when she heard something that sounded incredibly familiar. Was that… the Squid Sisters? Singing?

Marinette ran towards where the sound was coming from, though cautiously in case it was a trap of some sort. Sure enough, as the music got louder, she did recognize it. That definitely was the sound of a Squid Sisters song, and not just any song. “Calamari Inkantation”, as it was called, was _the_ inkling song. The most famous melody in existence. The Squid Sisters had covered it and their version was topping the charts, it was such a favourite among the citizens of Inkopolis.

Hiding behind a wall, Marinette slowly inched forwards and had a look around the corner. There! A radio was sitting on one of the platforms, playing Calamari Inkantation. And someone was sitting in front of it, quietly singing along.

Not just anyone. An _Octoling_.

Marinette lowered her weapon slightly. Why was an Octoling listening to inkling radio stations? And singing along? Marinette hadn’t even thought Octolings could understand the inkling language. It usually took jellyfish and other sea creatures long enough to learn.

The Octoling… she had a lovely voice, that was for sure. She was sitting facing the other way so only the back of her was visible. Her tentacle hair was longer than most Octolings usually kept theirs, a beautiful auburn colour with gentle curls. It swayed slightly in the breeze.

Huh, a breeze? Here, underground? Maybe the Octarians pumped air into their caves or something. Or perhaps this Octoling’s hair just moved like that on its own. Marinette watched in fascination.

The song came to an end, and the sound of the radio presenter followed.

“…And that was our good old Calamari Inkantation, by the Squid Sisters we all know and love! I hope everyone out there was singing along! Now for the Splatfest news – our final Splatfest, Mireille vs Aurore, has begun! We can’t say for sure what the results will be yet but surely it’ll be close…”

“I’m missing a SPLATFEST?!” Marinette yelped, unable to stop herself. She quickly put her hand over her mouth and dipped into squid form.

The Octoling switched off the radio and jumped up, looking around. Marinette stayed as still as possible.

“Hello? Is someone there?”

The Octoling had spoken in inkling – oh, she had spoken in _inkling_. Singing a song was one thing, but she had really said a sentence in the language. She could speak it. Her words had a strange lilt to them, her voice sounding slightly lower and smoother than that of inklings. Marinette held back a gasp.

“I know I heard someone…”

The Octarian turned around. Her tentacles were cut short at the front into a fringe, and she had little foxtails dangling down by her shoulders. Most Octolings wore visors but this one didn’t – her eyes were green, a beautiful, leafy green that was surprisingly uncommon on this wasteland of a planet.

Marinette moved backwards a little. It was a mistake. The Octoling’s eyes snapped down to where Marinette was hiding in the ink.

“You’re there, I know you are! Please come out! I promise I won’t attack you!”

“Don’t fall for it,” Fu muttered through the radio. Marinette had forgotten he was there. “She’s just luring you into a false sense of security. Better to splat her on sight.”

It was true. Octolings were not to be trusted.

But this Octoling… she didn’t have a weapon with her. She was entirely defenceless. And anyway, how could she be all bad? She had been listening to inkling radio, right? Apparently she liked the Squid Sisters. She couldn’t be an enemy to the inklings.

Marinette slowly stood up into her full humanoid form, still keeping her weapon close just in case. The Octoling’s expression softened as she watched.

“You’re an inkling,” she said quietly, keeping her distance. She looked a little afraid. “You’re one of the ones travelling through our lands and taking the butterflies away.”

“I’m taking the butterflies _back_ ,” Marinette clarified. “They were ours to begin with.”

The Octoling sighed. “That’s true…”

“What are you waiting for?” Fu said. “Splat her! She’s right there!”

“Why were you listening to inkling radio?” Marinette asked, ignoring Fu for the moment. She was too intrigued now. She needed answers.

“I love the Squid Sisters,” the Octoling replied. “They have such amazing voices! And amazing songs! I want to be a singer too, so it really inspires me.”

“Don’t you have any Octarian idols of your own?”

The Octoling shuffled around nervously. “We’re not supposed to make our own music. Our leader likes us to listen to his music only.”

“Your leader doesn’t sound very nice…”

The Octoling shrugged. “What can we do? Inklings won’t let us have any land up on the surface, and we can’t go back in the sea. Our leader and our kettles are all we have.”

Oh, so was that why they were stealing butterflies? Because they didn’t have anything else? To them, the inklings must seem so privileged. Marinette was starting to feel rather bad indeed for how many Octarians she had splatted recently. Weren’t they just doing exactly what she was doing? Trying to protect her home and her friends?

“You’re not as bad as they’ve told us the inklings are,” the Octoling continued. “Are all inklings like you?”

“Every inkling is different, I suppose. Maybe some are good, some are bad.” _Like Octarians_ , she thought to herself, though she didn’t say it out loud. Fu was still listening, after all, and he hated all Octarians no matter what.

“You seem like a good inkling. You just want to get your butterflies back. I understand.”

“And I want my friend back too,” Marinette said, feeling stronger as she thought of Nino. “He’s been kidnapped and we don’t know what’s happening to him down here. Me and my fellow agent have to rescue him.”

The Octoling nodded. “I know who you’re talking about. Your friend. He’s… well… please don’t be too shocked when you find him, okay?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“He might be a bit different now. Well, a lot different. I don’t know exactly what our leader has done with him but I’ve heard some rumours.”

“What rumours? Please, tell me what’s happened to Nino!”

“I don’t know!” The Octoling looked scared again. “Even if I did, how could I tell you? You’re an inkling! You’re… you’re an _enemy_ …”

“Exactly,” Fu said, sounding impatient. “She’s your enemy, now just splat her already!”

“We don’t have to be enemies,” Marinette said.

“I know,” the Octoling replied. “But what can I do? I’ve already betrayed my people enough by telling you all this. And listening to your music. And wishing I could move to Inkopolis and be as fresh as all of you are–”

She snapped her hand over her mouth, looking around as if she was expecting someone to be spying on her.

“It’s okay,” Marinette said. “You don’t have to tell me anymore. I’ll, uh, leave you alone now…”

“Wait! I just want to know… what’s your name?”

Marinette hesitated. No one was supposed to know her identity, not even people back home.

“Ladybug,” she replied finally. It wasn’t a total lie. “What’s your name?”

The Octoling hesitated too. After a few seconds she said, “Volpina.”

That must be a lie. Marinette just nodded.

“Volpina. Thank you. I wish you luck in your singing career.”

“And I hope you can rescue your friend.”

“WHY AREN’T YOU SPLATTING HER?!” Fu screeched.

Marinette hurried away, back towards the outer edges of Kelp Dome. How could she have splatted “Volpina”? Sure, Volpina would have respawned, but still. It would have seemed so unfair.

Things were still not sinking in. An Octoling who was a fan of the Squid Sisters? Who wanted to move to Inkopolis and be just like the inklings? Marinette carried on trudging through the dome, but she just couldn’t get her mind off it. She couldn’t get her mind off _Volpina_.

 

 

 

 

This Splatfest was not going well. Nath had decided to try out a Blaster, and his teammate Ivan was just staring at him in dismay.

“What?” Nath asked.

“You’re using a _Blaster_ ,” Ivan replied, his voice completely monotone. He sounded more disappointed than Nath had ever heard him.

“Yeah? So? I like trying out new weapons.” More like, he kept trying out new weapons because he still hadn’t found one that fit, and Tikki wouldn’t help him with it.

“You’re using a Blaster. For a Turf War.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

Ivan rubbed his forehead. “Blasters are for splatting. Not for inking.”

“Well so are Chargers, right? And Max uses a Charger!”

“Max is an exception to every rule. Some people might be alright at using Blasters during Turf War, but you? On your first try? During a Splatfest, when it actually matters whether we win or lose?”

Ouch. Did Ivan really have such little faith in him?

“Relax, Ivan, it’ll be fine,” he said. “Okay, so I know Blasters have a low fire rate and stuff. But they have exploding bullets! I’ll be able to splat people way more easily, so they won’t be able to ink any turf, and we’ll win. That’s how it’s going to work.”

Ivan just sighed. “I sure do hope so, Nathaniel…”

The match that followed was a disaster. It was true that Blasters did not cover much turf. Nath had hoped that the bullets would make up for it, but the low fire rate meant that if Nath missed his shot, the opponent would have time to splat him before he could take another shot. And that happened far, _far_ too often. Nath was terrible at aiming. The only thing that kept him going through the match was the Squid Sisters music that was blasting through the speakers, keeping his motivation up.

“I knew our team would lose,” Ivan said once the match results had been announced. The rest of the team members were trudging away solemnly. It seemed that people took losing Splatfest battles much more seriously than normal battles.

“It’s my fault, isn’t it?” Nath said, looking at his Blaster. “You’re right, this weapon sucks for Turf War. I should have thought about that first.”

“Hey…” Ivan looked like he was trying to smile, though it didn’t look particularly genuine. “You still did pretty well for a Blaster, though.”

“No I didn’t! 400p? That’s awful!”

“And what did you get on your very first match here in Inkopolis?”

Nath thought back. It suddenly felt like a long time ago. “I think it was about 140p…”

“See? So you are improving!”

Well, that much was true. He wasn’t anywhere near as bad now as he used to be. Alright, so he wasn’t amazing yet. But at least things were changing.

“Thanks, Ivan,” he said, really meaning it. “Hey – are Heavy Splatlings easy to use, by any chance?”

Ivan picked his Heavy Splatling up off the floor beside him. “Not that much. It took me a while to get used to it. But this is the exact kind of weapon I love. I can keep back, away from the front lines, but still protect my teammates when they need it. And unlike a Charger, I don’t need to bother with single, accurate shots. I can just pummel the opponents until they give in.”

That sounded amazing. “Maybe I’ll try that next.”

“Sure, but remember, it’s still hard to get the hang of. Most weapons are. Maybe a Mini Splatling would be better for someone as… well…” Ivan looked down at Nath from his rather high-up point of view.

“Yeah, okay, I get it,” Nath muttered. “I’m small. But I can lift a Heavy Splatling, don’t worry.”

Ivan’s smile looked a lot more genuine now. “I’m sure you can. Good luck, Nath. I know this is your only Splatfest so I’m really hoping we win.”

“Me too.”

“Will you two hurry up and go away?” Plagg called from the centre of the arena. “I need to start the next match!”

Oh – of course! Nath quickly Super Jumped away.

 

Heavy Splatling didn’t work so well. Mini Splatling didn’t either. Just like Chargers, those weapons had to be charged up before being fired. And Nath was constantly being splatted while waiting to charge. It was just so, so tedious.

“Tikki, what kind of weapon should I be using?” he asked her after yet another lost Turf War. At this rate Team Mireille were going to lose the Splatfest for sure.

“That’s not up to me,” Tikki said.

“But I’m trying out so many different things and it’s not helping!”

“Well, you do seem to be very good at using a Splattershot these days…”

“Everyone’s good at using a Splattershot. And anyway, I’m not above average when I use it. It just doesn’t feel like the kind of weapon I should be using. I know there’s _something_ out there that’s perfect for me, and I just need to find it!”

“In that case, here is my advice.” Tikki took a deep breath. “Watch your teammates and opponents very carefully. See what weapons they’re using, what playstyles they are employing. Do they play aggressively? Cautiously? Defensively? Are certain strategies better with particular weapon types? Do some analysis. See if you can imagine yourself in their positions, whether or not you would feel comfortable playing the way they do. Use that to help you narrow down what sort of weapon you want to use.”

That was pretty much what he had been trying to do already. But getting mad at Tikki wouldn’t achieve anything – she was just trying to help him.

“Thank you,” he said. “I think I’ll stick with a Splattershot for now…”

“That sounds like a good idea. But let me know if there’s anything else you want to try out!”

“I will. But I’ll wait till the end of the Splatfest first.”

Tikki glanced at a clock on the wall. “Isn’t that in about 2 minutes?”

What?! Nath looked at the clock to see–

No! The Splatfest was about to end! Did he have time for another battle?

Without even bothering to say bye to Tikki, he raced out of the door and across the plaza towards the Lobby. Surely he could make it in time?

But he didn’t. The doors were closed. And a few seconds later, the screen in the plaza lit up with an announcement from the Squid Sisters. He turned to look, trying not to feel too grumpy.

“And that’s the end of the final Splatfest!” Mireille said, punching a fist up in the air as usual. “I can’t wait to find out the results!”

“Same!” Aurore said, a rare smile on her face. “We’ll let you all know when the results have been calculated. In the meantime, carry on with all your regular battles, and stuff.”

“And now to announce the Turf War stages…”

Nath didn’t bother to listen to any more. This Splatfest was over, and he had hardly contributed at all. He’d lost most of his matches. It wouldn’t be a surprise if his team lost.

 

 

The next morning, he sat in his apartment drinking a rather large mug of coffee and feeling more glum than usual. He had been intending to psych himself up to find out the results of the Splatfest and then go into the plaza when he was ready. But the morning newspaper had arrived and already told him the bad news.

_TEAM AURORE WINS FINAL SPLATFEST DESPITE GAINING FEWER VOTES_

Wasn’t that exactly what Alix had been warning her teammates about? Most people would have voted for Mireille, expecting her to win, and the mysterious “multiplier” (whatever that was) would give enough of a boost to Aurore’s team to drive her to victory instead.

So that was it. Nath had lost his only Splatfest. He would never get a chance to participate in another one again, ever, in his life.

He grabbed an energy drink off the counter beside him and dunked it all into his coffee mug. He was definitely going to need it today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Marie actually got more votes than Callie in the final Splatfest, and also won, but shush ;)


	6. Tower Control

Sabrina couldn’t help staring through the window in awe. The Squid Sisters themselves were in the studio, chatting to each other, only a few metres away. All that separated Sabrina from them was a panel of glass! She wished she could meet them. How inspirational were they?

But it probably wouldn’t happen. Sabrina knew she wasn’t a good singer anyway, she could never be like them. She should just focus on battling.

Turning around, she saw that Chloé was still leaning against the railing, watching Inkopolis Plaza down below them. Or rather, watching someone in particular.

“Are you still looking at Alya?” Sabrina asked. Ever since the final Splatfest, where both Alya and Chloé had chosen the same team, they had decided upon a truce to their rivalry. Now it seemed that Chloé was just fascinated with her.

“I don’t get it,” Chloé said. “Why would her friends just leave her like that? First Nino, then Marinette and Adrien… in fact, why would Adrien just leave _me_ like that…”

“I don’t know,” Sabrina said, standing beside Chloé and looking down at Alya too, who was doing something on her phone. “Maybe Adrien’s father made him leave or something.”

“True. But now Alya’s all alone.” She shook her head. “I should have been a better friend to her much earlier on, shouldn’t I? I thought rivalry was an important thing! I thought having a rival would make me better somehow! But it didn’t. I was just stubborn.”

“Why don’t you go talk to Alya?”

“I don’t know if she’d want to talk to me.”

“But you’re not rivals anymore.”

“Still, that doesn’t mean we’re friends!”

Sabrina put a hand on Chloé’s shoulder. “You managed to make friends with me, didn’t you? So you can make friends with Alya too.”

Chloé smiled at her. “Thanks, Sabrina. You’re right. I ought to try.” She looked back down at the plaza. “Do you think I should switch weapons? I’ve been using a Splattershot for a while but I don’t know, I think I might be better off with a .52 Gal…”

“Are you doing this because Alya uses a Gal? I’m pretty sure she uses a .96 Gal, though.”

“Alright, Alya may have inspired me. But a .52 Gal is much easier to use so I’ll at least start off with that. Then Alya and I will both be using Gals.”

Sabrina chuckled a little. Chloé and Alya… would they be Gal Pals then?

 

Down below in the plaza, Alya wasn’t the only inkling around.

“Aw, come on Rose!” Nath said, pulling Rose towards the Lobby by the arm. “Just one Ranked Battle? Please?”

“I don’t know,” she muttered. “It’s far too competitive, I always feel like everyone’s being so aggressive–”

“But I’ve never tried it before and I don’t want to do it alone! Pretty please?” He put on his most adorable expression, hoping it would work on a sweetheart like Rose.

“Alright then,” she said, her face softening. “But just one match. I believe the current Ranked Battle mode is Splat Zones, and that’s not so bad. I’d say it’s the least aggressive out of the three.”

“Then let’s go!”

Just then the large screen in the plaza lit up, ready for another announcement. Nath and Rose stopped to watch. The Squid Sisters appeared on the screen, all dressed up in their bling as usual.

“It’s stage changeover time!” Mireille said, punching a fist up in the air. “Let’s see what the Turf War battle stages are!”

“Here they come,” Aurore muttered, looking as if she was reading lines off a telescreen somewhere.

“The first Turf War stage is… Arowana Mall! Hey Aurore, remember that time we went to that café here and bought seven helpings of ice cream?”

“I remember you spilling at least two of them on the floor,” Aurore replied, her expression unchanged.

“Ahem, yes… anyway, the other Turf War stage is… Flounder Heights! Doesn’t Plagg live here?”

“I think so, I’ve seen him commuting into the city sometimes.”

“Nice! And now for the Ranked Battle stages. The next Ranked Battle mode is… Tower Control!”

Rose sighed, leaning on her Carbon Roller Deco. “Tower Control is so stressful…”

“And the first Ranked Battle stage,” Mireille continued, “is Kelp Dome! Aurore, do you know if they grow chip plants here?”

Aurore stifled a yawn. “I seriously doubt it, Mireille…”

“Right, right, I knew that. Anyway, the other Ranked Battle stage is… Walleye Warehouse! And ooh yes, even we’ve heard the juicy stories… off in a remote corner of the warehouse, two young inklings are–”

“BATTLING!” Aurore said quickly, putting on a giant grin that looked very out of place. “Yep. Battling. We’re not spreading any rumours, _are we Mireille?”_

“No, no, of course not, haha!” Mireille chuckled nervously. “Alright, that’s it for now. We’ll see you later for the next battle stage announcements. And in the meantime…”

The two Squid Sisters put their hands up in unison and sang, “Stay fresh!”

Nath turned straight round to face Rose. “What rumours? Please tell me! I know I’ve been here for a while now but I still always feel like a newbie, so out of the loop…”

“Oh, it’s just something silly,” Rose said, giggling a little. “Juleka told me about it, she hears everything. It’s not anything terribly important, just some silliness, I’m surprised the Squid Sisters even mentioned it…”

“So what is it?!”

“You know Lê Chiến Kim, right?”

“Of course I do, I’ve been splatted by him like seven hundred times.”

Rose giggled again. “So have I! Anyway, apparently a while ago he was bragging that after a match at Walleye Warehouse, he went and hid off in a corner and kissed someone.”

“Who?”

“No one knows, he’s been keeping it a secret. Most people guess it must have been one of his teammates, but who knows? It’s a mystery! And now Walleye Warehouse is somewhat notorious for being… well… romantic, I suppose…”

“How can a noisy, smoky factory be romantic?” Nath scoffed. “And what if Kim’s lying?”

“He may be a show-off, but he’s not a liar.”

“Whatever.” Nath held up the new weapon he was going to try out, the N-ZAP ’85. “So, should we go battle?”

“Fine, I suppose. But like I said, I’m only doing one match. Tower Control is really not my thing.”

Seeing her dejected face was enough to make Nath feel a little guilty for dragging her into this. It was like kicking a guppy. He leaned forwards and gave her a quick hug.

“Thank you Rose, you’re an awesome friend.”

There – that had cheered her up! She gave him one of her massive smiles.

“It’s no problem! With you it’ll be fun! Let’s get going.”

They went into the Lobby together and joined a match. Since it was Nath’s first time he had automatically been assigned a rank of C-, the lowest, so he was matched up with other players of similar ranks. Rose had done few enough Ranked Battles that she was still a C- rank too, so they were assigned to the same team together along with two other people.

While the team was getting ready, Nath read a little information booklet that explained the rules of Tower Control. In this mode, there was a small square tower with a little post in the middle of it. It started off in the centre of the battle stage, and whenever one of the teams “controlled” it (by having at least one of their members standing on the tower) it would slowly move along a predetermined path towards a goal near the enemy team’s base. The objective was to get the tower as far towards the goal as possible within the time limit, and stop it falling into enemy control.

That sounded simple enough. Of course, there were a few more rules, such as the match going into overtime if the losing team was in control of the tower when time was up, or that if the tower reached one of the goals then the team in control would automatically win by knockout, etc. Nath decided he would get the hang of it better by actually taking part.

He and his teammates were transported to Kelp Dome for the first match. It was a large indoor greenhouse full of all sorts of plants and food being grown everywhere, making it hot and humid. According to the map the tower was on top of a large platform in the open central area of the battle stage.

Rose started giggling for some reason.

“What’s funny?” Nath asked.

“Oh! It’s just… well, have you had a look at our opponents?”

Nath took a look. Some random guy called Justin, that was alright… and the others were…

“The Slaughter Squad!” he yelped. “How is that funny? We’re going to lose for sure!”

Rose managed to stop herself laughing long enough to answer. “If this was a Turf War we’d lose, but when it comes to Ranked Battles, they’re only rank C- for a reason! You’ll see what I mean!” She collapsed into giggles again.

Nath still wasn’t sure. Alright, fair enough, Kim and Alix wouldn’t be too bad to deal with probably. But what about Max, the legendary unsplattable inkling? Was he still going to be using an E-Litre 3K Scope?

Sure enough, taking a look at what weapons they were using, it was true. Max was still using his E-Litre. The other two had switched to using Tentatek Splattershots. That made sense, since Aerosprays would not be ideal for the kind of fierce battling needed for Tower Control. But Max, with his ridiculously long-ranged Charger… Nath shivered just thinking about it.

The signal played for the match to begin, and Nath immediately jumped off the starting platform onto the low ground, shooting orange ink everywhere. The N-ZAP ’85 had a very quick fire rate and reminded him somewhat of using the good old Splattershot Jr. that he had started off with, though thankfully with better range and accuracy. Maybe he would actually be good at using this one!

One of his other teammates inked the side of a wall and swam up it to get access to the tower much quicker than going the long way around, and Nath followed. They arrived in the central area to see that the other team had already got to the tower first, with Kim standing on top of it raining down Suction Bombs everywhere, and Alix running around on the ground shooting at anyone who came near.

Nath noticed a laser line from somewhere high up and quickly swam away, hopefully out of reach. Kelp Dome had narrow grated walkways running above most of the arena and it looked like Max must have been standing up on one of those, trying to splat people from there.

Anyway, there was no time to lose. The tower was already moving towards the finishing point near his team’s base and he had to stop it from getting there!

He swam up to the side of the tower, unnoticed, while Alix was off chasing Rose. Then he leapt into humanoid form for a second and threw a Splat Bomb onto the tower, hoping that would force Kim off it. But Kim merely went around to the other side of the tower and used the post to shield himself from the explosion.

Alright – maybe direct action was better. He shot orange ink up the side of the tower, swam up onto it, then tried to splat Kim by shooting at him directly.

For some reason, Kim suddenly jumped off the tower, leaving Nath standing there alone. Huh, that was weird. But good! It was good! The tower was now in his team’s control and had started heading the other way.

He went around to the other side of the tower for a better view of where the tower was going, only to see that Kim had left a Suction Bomb there. Nath backed up as quickly as possible but it was too late – the bomb exploded, splatting him in bright blue ink, and Kim went back onto the tower and regained control.

In the several seconds it took Nath to respawn back at his home base, he could see several interesting things happening on the map. His teammates were all distracted and not focusing on the tower. Rose was in a battle with Justin, and the other teammates seemed to be chasing Max and trying to splat him – though surely that was futile, considering Max’s title of “unsplattable”. Meanwhile, the tower was getting closer and closer to the finish, closer and closer to knocking them out completely!

Nath knew it was up to him to stop the tower. He couldn’t afford to make any silly mistakes this time, like not noticing a sneaky Suction Bomb. He had to be careful and do this properly.

The tower was already closing in on the final stretch, down one of the side corridors – though calling it a “corridor” didn’t seem right, since Kelp Dome was so big and spacious. Nath swam over towards there as quick as he could…

Then stopped, staring in disbelief.

“…and I was on the tower first, so you get off and protect it!”

“The tower goes faster with more people on it so will you just let me stay here–”

“But you’re always getting splatted, you’ll sabotage the whole–”

“There’s no one around! Just let me on the tower, you big oaf, we’re meant to be a team!”

Nath couldn’t help it – he burst into laughter. Of course it wasn’t the first time he had seen Kim and Alix furiously arguing with each other, but right in the middle of battle? Oh, this was just too good!

“There, go splat that guy!” Kim said, pointing at Nath. Nath tried to hold up his N-ZAP ’85 and shoot at them but he was still laughing too much to aim anywhere near well enough.

“Why don’t _you_ go splat him? I thought you said you were the one who’s good at splatting people, huh?”

“Oh, just get off my tower you stupid midget!”

Kim picked up Alix by the scruff of the neck and threw her off the tower. Within a few seconds she had climbed back on and started violently hitting him with her weapon.

“HOW DARE YOU CHUCK ME OFF THE TOWER, YOU COMPLETE, UTTER–”

A string of interesting swear words followed. Nath finally got his laughter under control, knowing that he couldn’t waste this chance. If those two were busy having a full-on fist-fight in the middle of battle, at least they weren’t concentrating on him. He ran closer and started shooting at them. That seemed to stop the brawl immediately.

His N-ZAP didn’t have quite as much range as the Tentatek Splattershots, not to mention that it was two on one. He was splatted within just a few seconds. The other two immediately went back to fighting each other.

Respawning back on his home base, Nath knew it was hopeless. None of his teammates were anywhere near the tower so he couldn’t Super Jump there quickly, and trying to swim all the way there would take too much time. There was no point. He watched the map, seeing the tower getting closer and closer and…

There. The tower reached the goal and the signal played for the end of the match. The inklings were all Super Jumped to the centre of the arena where Plagg was waiting to judge them, as always.

“You know,” he said, in a completely monotone voice, “there is a rule that states no physical violence allowed or you will be disqualified. But then again, that rule only applies when you are attacking people from the opposing team. There’s nothing that forbids you from _fighting your own teammates_. So I guess I’m not allowed to disqualify you complete morons, as much as I want to, since you technically did nothing wrong. Congrats on the win.”

Without another word he vanished.

“I’m not the one who started the fight!” Kim said indignantly. “That _thing_ hit me first.”

“I’m not a thing and I am _this close_ to hitting you again!” Alix snapped.

“Ew, the thing’s trying to speak to me. Max, make it stop.”

Max simply sighed and Super Jumped away.

“Oh fine then, just leave me here with an overly violent little rodent who seems to like trying to beat me up–”

“We should probably go,” Rose muttered, tugging on Nath’s arm. “I don’t like arguments.”

Of course she didn’t. Nath, on the other hand, was finding this far more amusing than he should. At least it was distracting him from the fact that he’d lost his very first Ranked Battle, even though he’d had a chance to win it.

“Fine,” he said. He and Rose Super Jumped back to the plaza. They landed rather near where Max had landed. How was that guy so cool? He hadn’t even needed to say anything to his idiotic teammates, he just left. What gracefulness. What… _freshness_.

“Phew!” Rose said, a smile back on her face. “I told you Tower Control is aggressive, though I wasn’t expecting it to be quite _that_ aggressive. A real fist-fight, honestly! Did you witness it yourself? What caused it? I would think that they… Nath? Hello?”

She waved a hand in front of his voice. He snapped out of his daydream. Had he been staring at Max? He really didn’t mean to. He was just… trying to figure out how to be that fresh. Of course.

“Yeah, I’m listening,” he said.

“Oh, right! Sorry.” Rose continued to speak. Nath wasn’t really listening that much, though. What type of sunglasses was Max wearing? Why did he wear them all the time? They certainly looked good, that was for sure. And that jacket, that jacket looked good too. And that whole attitude, the whole way of life, being unsplattable and carrying that E-Litre 3K Scope around everywhere with him even when he didn’t need it, just because it fit his aesthetic…

Nath tried to shake himself out of it. He wasn’t feeling jealous, was he? No… so then what was he feeling?

 

 

 

Another boss battle. Another time for Adrien to use his Kraken. Yet again, he felt the toxic Octarian ink overtaking him. But this time he wanted to stay awake – he had to stay awake! He had to help Marinette defeat the “Octonozzle”, as this Octarian boss was called.

Why had he used his Kraken? They were doing fine without it. It might have been difficult, but they would have lived. He didn’t need to do it. Why was he always so impulsive? Using his powerful weapons just to be on the safe side, even when he didn’t need to. And this time, all it was doing was causing him pain.

“Chat Noir, stay safe!” he heard Marinette call to him, as if from a distance. She pushed him towards the edge of the arena and then ran off to fight the boss herself. She was so good at being the hero. Afraid of nothing, excellent at everything. Would Adrien ever be able to reach that level? Maybe, maybe not. It would take a long time, that was for sure.

“You okay, bucko?” he heard Captain Fu ask him through the radio.

“I…”

He couldn’t reply. If he opened his mouth anymore, he might be sick. The edges of his vision were starting to black out.

No! He didn’t want to faint again. The boss wasn’t defeated, it wasn’t safe to just suddenly pass out right here. But this Octarian ink that he had absorbed while transformed into the Kraken, it was hurting him. Killing him. It felt like his blood was sizzling.

“Take a seat if you want, bucko. You’ve earned it.”

Had he though? Had he really earned it, when Marinette was out there still fighting?

Feeling dizzy and sick, he slumped onto the floor. The world seemed to be spinning around him. He could see Marinette shooting at the Octonozzle’s tentacle, though it seemed blurry from here, and he could see her stand back as the Octonozzle burst into pieces. All that remained was the butterfly that it had been holding captive.

Oh, thank goodness. The boss was defeated. It was safe.

Without even realizing it, Adrien had ended up lying down, swimming in and out of consciousness. Vague memories drifted past him, nothing concrete. Was that a side effect of prolonged exposure to Octarian ink? Reliving your memories? Because that had happened to him the first time, too.

“Chat! Chat, are you okay?”

He could barely even hear Marinette. Heck, was that even Marinette? Or was it Captain Fu? He couldn’t tell through the ringing in his ears.

Closing his eyes, he finally let the darkness wash over him completely.

 

* * *

 

 

_A park, with everyone on skateboards and having a good time. But Adrien waits outside. He won’t enter. Not without…_

_“Why don’t you want to go in?” he asks._

_Those grey eyes turn to look at him with less enthusiasm than he has ever seen. “I’m not really… welcome here, I guess…”_

_“Why not?”_

_A sigh – not a tired one, but a sad one. “I have an enemy here.”_

_“You have an enemy?!” Adrien can’t help but feel shocked. “How could anyone be your enemy?”_

_“You don’t battle with me much, you don’t know, but…” A soft hand squeeze. “I’m not really as nice to other people as I am to you.”_

_“I know that,” Adrien admits._

_“Yeah. I wish I could be better. I just…” A harder hand squeeze now. “I find it so hard to apologize! And I’ve got this reputation already, and I don’t wanna change it, I worked so hard to get here. But I always get so jealous and reckless, and a certain person here at this skatepark hates me very much, and I wish I could change that but I just don’t even know where to start…”_

_Adrien always loves receiving hugs, but now is the time to give one. He never tires of feeling that precious warm hoodie fabric against his arms._

_“I’m proud of you for trying,” he says. “You know there’s a problem and you want to change. That’s the first step. And I love you.”_

_A long pause. His words must have really had an effect._

_“I… I love you too, Adrien.”_

_Of course. He knows that. He smiles into the hoodie, feeling lucky for once._


	7. New friends, new agents

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long time no see!! I still love Splatoon though, and I have no plans to ever abandon this weird little fic. There's a few more chapters until the end of the events of the first Splatoon game, then there'll be a two year time-skip ahead to the events of Splatoon 2 - in which things will have changed and there will be new characters...

Aha, the Jet Squelcher. It was Shooter, so Nath wouldn’t have to worry about manual firing, and it had a long range, so at least he could make up for his pitiful aiming skills by scaring people off from a distance. And plus, Splash Wall and Inkstrike? That was a good Sub and Special set.

“Thanks, Tikki,” he said as he paid for it. “I’ve got a feeling I’m actually going to win the next match.”

“But will that be because of you or because of your teammates?”

Ugh, how could she say stuff like that, and still with that sickening tone and expression? As if she hadn’t just put his insecurities out in the open?

“Because of me,” Nath said.

“Mhm. Of course. So what will your tactics for Rainmaker be?”

“Nuh-uh. Not Rainmaker. I’ve sworn off Ranked Battles until I can find a weapon that suits me.”

Tikki shrugged. “Fair enough. But different weapons are suited to different battle modes, so something you find useful for Turf Wars may not work on anything else.”

“I know that. But I’m still not doing Ranked Battles.”

“Alright. Good luck anyway.”

“Thank you.”

He left the shop and headed to the Lobby.

 

 

He knew something was up as soon as he had been transported to the base on Ancho-V Games – a video game studio that had fan-propelled platforms everywhere. But it was nothing to do with the battle stage. It was his teammates. He could only see them beside him out of the corner of his eye, but that was enough. He knew exactly who they were.

The Slaughter Squad.

_Oh no._

He tried to calm his nerves. Alright, so he was on a team with the freshest inklings in existence. He couldn’t afford to let them down. He had to pull his weight. And definitely, no making a fool of himself.

“Ancho-V Games? Hey, remember that time I splatted 22 people here?”

“Well remember the time I inked 1800p here?”

“You just got lucky…”

“Well maybe you did too!”

“Hey, I consistently splat loads of people!”

“And I consistently ink more turf than anyone else! Which, may I remind you, is the objective of Turf Wars!”

“Then it’s no wonder I’m better at Ranked Battles – the thing that actually matters!”

Kim and Alix were arguing again. Come to think of it, Nath had never heard them do anything else. At least this way their attention was off him.

“May I remind you two that the only reason you’re not constantly losing is because I am always covering your backs?!”

Max had spoken – he had actually _spoken._ It was the first time Nath had ever heard his voice. For some reason it seemed to triple his nervousness – though somehow he felt like that wasn’t anything to do with battling.

“Yeah, fine,” Kim muttered.

Nath dared to turn aside slightly to get a look at his teammates. Kim and Alix were facing away from each other, looking grumpy. And Max was–

Wait, was Max looking at _him?_ It was impossible to see through those sunglasses. But the thought gave his stomach a rather weird turn.

The signal played for the match to begin. Nath immediately began shooting into the distance with his new Jet Squelcher, knowing that he had longer range than the Aerosprays and a quicker fire rate than the E-Litre. Maybe he could actually get some points!

It didn’t last long. Kim and Alix were using their Aerosprays to ink everything quicker than he could keep up, and Max had already swam ahead to some sniper vantage point somewhere. Nath himself tried to swim ahead too and get in some points before the Aerosprays could reach, but they were just too quick for him.

The battle did not end up being much fun at all. The opposing team quickly found themselves confined to the small area around their base, not able to venture further forward without being splatted, and there was simply no turf for Nath to ink without the Aerosprays getting there first. He resigned himself to standing and shooting at the opponents, hoping his long range would be able to splat some of them. But his accuracy was completely off. Not to mention, the Jet Squelcher did not have great damage stats.

This sucked.

When Plagg announced the final results, it was no surprise that his team had won by far. It was also no surprise that he had barely managed to ink anything at all. 458p? That was just atrocious. And in front of that Slaughter Squad, too. He wished the ground would just open up and swallow him whole.

“…and I actually beat you this time, so there! I’m better than you! Told you so!”

“One time out of fifty, Kim, that proves nothing!”

“Oh stop being such a sore loser, I beat you fair and square…”

Again? Those two always seemed to be trying to get the better of each other. Nath stood there dejectedly, watching them. He noticed with a jolt that Max turned back to take a look at him. Why was that making him feel so nervous? He turned around and faced the other way, hoping no one would catch him staring.

What would it be like to have a squad like that? To know that you were incredibly powerful, so much that people feared you? To know that you were always guaranteed a win? To know that people didn’t even dare talk to you, because they knew they weren’t fresh enough?

And he wasn’t. He knew it. He was nowhere near fresh enough to talk to anyone as amazing as them. Just being teammates had been bad enough. They were lightyears out of his league.

“Sorry about all that, you hardly even got to do anything this match. You probably hate us.”

W-what?

He had been so lost in thought he hadn’t seen what had been going on in front of his eyes. Looking up, he saw that Alix was standing right there in front of him. And _talking to him._

Oh boy. An actual member of the Slaughter Squad, speaking to him! What was he supposed to do now? What was he meant to say? Wait, what had she even said? He had barely been listening!

Yes… she said he hadn’t done anything this match, that was true… and that he must hate them… what? No! Not true at all!

“Of course I don’t hate you, why would I hate you?” he babbled. “You’re like, the coolest, freshest inklings ever!”

She frowned up at him. “Seriously? We’re not. We’re really annoying and we know it.”

What did she mean by saying the Slaughter Squad weren’t cool? Of course they were cool! They were the very epitome of freshness! How could you be that fresh without even knowing it?

He gulped and said, “Well for the record I think you’re really cool, and I was honoured to be on your team… I wish I was as cool as you…”

“Wait, you’re not kidding?”

“No.”

Her face lit up suddenly. “Dude! Are you saying you’re like, a fan of me?”

“Well yeah, who isn’t?”

“This is awesome! I so need you on my team again next time!”

Nath was so surprised he almost stumbled backwards physically. “B-b-b-but why? I’m not even good!”

“I don’t care! I want you on my team as a _friend._ ”

“Friend?!”

“Yeah!” She gave him a punch in the arm, probably meaning it in a friendly way, though it was strong enough to knock him aside slightly. “You’re my friend now! Wait – that’s okay with you, right?”

Nath just nodded, too shocked to even speak.

“Awesome! Come on new friend, let’s go hang out!”

He did not object as she grabbed his arm and Super Jumped him somewhere else. They arrived in what Nath recognized to be Blackbelly Skatepark, though he had never been here outside of battle times. There were actually people skating here. Inklings, jellyfish, anemones, all sorts of creatures.

“If you ever need to find me when I’m not battling then I’ll be here,” Alix said, leading him to a bench on the side where they sat down. “I practically live here.”

He just nodded again, still not sure what to say. Talking to someone as fresh as this was so intimidating.

“So. Your name is Nathaniel, right?”

“You can call me Nath,” he said quickly. _Nathaniel_ just sounded odd to him now, considering how unused to it he was. Though he didn’t have much in the way of friends here, Rose always just called him Nath.

“Cool. Where are you from?”

“Nowhere special, just the further-off parts of Calamari County…”

“Like where the Squid Sisters are from? Awesome.”

True, the Squid Sisters were basically what the area was known for. Well, and the iconic Calamari Inkantation too. But there wasn’t much else to do there. It was glum and boring… much like Nath himself…

“Why do you want to be my friend?” he asked before he could stop himself.

“Well, it would be kinda nice to have someone around who doesn’t hate me. Or who I don’t hate.”

“Surely there must be lots of people like that!”

“Nope.”

“Not even Kim and Max?”

He knew that had been a stupid question as soon as he’d asked it. Her eyes narrowed.

“Do you seriously think I’m friends with _them?”_ she asked.

“No…”

“Exactly. I’d rather punch myself in the face.”

Huh… but that didn’t make sense. She was part of the Slaughter Squad. Surely there must be a reason for that? Why would she stick around if she hated it?

“I know what you’re thinking,” she said, crossing her arms. “You’re wondering why I always team up with them, right?”

“Um, yeah…”

“Well, it’s because it’s better that way. I get to win almost every Turf War. I don’t have to worry about being sniped by Max. And you weren’t here for this, but ages ago me and Kim were such bitter rivals that people would literally Super Jump away from matches if they saw we were there, we were that annoying. It’s better now. I once accidentally got put on the same team as them and we completely annihilated the opponents. So now we just team up for convenience, glory, and reputation.”

It did seem to be working very well. The three members of the Slaughter Squad had such a legendary, fear-inducing reputation, enough to cause inklings to quiver in their boots at the sight of them. And plus, this inter-team rivalry of theirs seemed to push them to gain higher and higher scores just to outdo each other. Well… during Turf Wars, at least. Nath knew what a mess they were when it came to Ranked Battles. Actual teamwork would be the only way to win there.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to say more things, rather than just sit there silently like a clam. “Why do you hate them?”

“To be fair, I don’t exactly hate Max. It’s just annoying that he pretty much ignores me. Like he’s got better things to be doing with his time, and I’m totally unimportant.”

Oh, that was true. Max seemed to be so aloof, so above it all. It was actually pretty cool, though, the way he ignored the antics of his teammates, focusing instead on never being splatted, never getting even a drop of enemy ink on that jacket of his, that really cute jacket that suited him so well…

Nath shook himself out of his daydreams. Why was Max so easy to think about?

“And as for Kim,” Alix continued, her voice sounding colder all of a sudden, “you might have noticed that he’s the biggest jerk to ever exist. Inkopolis’s aggressive battling culture can only ever bring out the worst in someone as competitive as him. But that doesn’t mean he’s allowed to be mean to the only person who can beat him at Turf Wars – which is me!”

That did not sound fun. In fact, the more Nath was hearing about the truth behind the Slaughter Squad, the less cool they seemed. “Why don’t you just… like… stop?”

“Someone’s gotta knock Kim down a peg, and Max is too above-it-all to do it, so it may as well be me. And if I stopped now he’d just steamroll right over me and leave me behind – you know he’s way more popular than me, right? So I stick around in his stupid squad even though I hate it, because no one else likes me either. We’re just a bunch of bullies and I want out.”

Seriously? Was that really what the Slaughter Squad was like on the inside? _Rotten?_

“Surely I can’t be your only friend,” Nath said, still feeling the effects of being around a somewhat famous inkling, even if that illusion had just been shattered. “I would have thought lots of people would want to be your friend!”

“Nope, just you. That is, if you still want to be my friend after all my ridiculous oversharing just now…”

“Of course I still want to be your friend!”

She grinned. “Awesome! Now I guess I’ve finally got someone else to battle with. Thanks, Nath.”

He just looked down, hoping he wasn’t blushing. The best Turf War player _ever_ actually wanted to be on his team? Maybe he was fresher than he thought. And the fact that Alix had just been complaining to him, venting her problems, when he hadn’t even considered that an inkling that fresh could even _have_ any problems, well, it certainly was lifting his own nervousness a little. Perhaps he sometimes forgot that even the freshest of inklings were still inklings, just like him. Not gods.

“So,” he said, wondering if he would regret asking this, “that rumour about Kim at Walleye Warehouse, that wasn’t you then?”

“Ew, yuck, no way. If he’d managed to plant one on me I would have murdered him with my bare hands.”

“So was it Max?”

“I asked him once but he said it wasn’t him either. I have no idea who it was. I feel sorry for them, though.”

Nath wondered if he should ask Kim himself, but quickly squashed that thought. He wasn’t quite that curious about it anyway. He was more curious about something else – far more curious.

“How are you so good at Turf Wars?” he asked.

“I dunno, I guess I just am. Do you want help or something?”

“Um… well…”

She grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet. “Yeah, I’ll help you! Come on – let’s go buy you an Aerospray!”

He was pulled along into a Super Jump before he knew it. This friendship had already started out so weirdly unpredictable, and it would probably continue like that. It was a nice change.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_A quiet corner of the underpass below the highway, the only sound being of vehicles rushing far above._

_“I wish I didn’t have to keep all this a secret,” Adrien says, leaning on the arm of this precious inkling sitting beside him. “But if my father found out he would send me away again! I can’t go back into isolation like that…”_

_Tears sting his eyes. He feels a hand run through his hair._

_“Hey, it’s okay Adrien. I don’t mind keeping it a secret, I swear I don’t. I would do anything to keep you safe.”_

_“I’m sorry,” he says, unable to stop the inky tears rolling. “I know you would want to show off about me, about having a boyfriend, right? I promise you’ll be able to someday! Just… wait until my father leaves Inkopolis. He will do at some point, to go back into the countryside to look for mother. He’ll leave once he’s satisfied that I’m doing fine here in the city.”_

_His eyes closed, he feels a kiss on his forehead._

_“Well for the record, I think you’re doing great here. And as soon as your dad’s gone I’ll show you off to everyone all the time, don’t you worry about that!”_

_It isn’t quite the reassurance he wants to hear, but it’s the thought that counts. He opens his eyes again and stares up into the face that has been getting all his attention lately. That beautiful, fresh face, with the cocky grin and hints of mischief in those dreamy grey eyes._

_“I trust you,” he says._

_Hopefully that trust is not misplaced._

 

 

* * *

 

Adrien opened his eyes, the ceiling of the now-empty boss arena fazing into view. What just happened? Oh yes, he had used his Kraken again, this time fighting the Rampaging Octowhirl. A foe somewhat more difficult than the ones he and Marinette had already faced. And so, by using his Kraken, he had absorbed enough Octarian ink to knock him out again…

How did it work, anyway? How was it that Octarian ink didn’t kill him? All it seemed to do was bring the occasional memory back into his brain. Memories that made him homesick. Octarian ink wasn’t supposed to do that, was it?

“Chat, you’re okay!” Marinette was kneeling down beside him. “Wait – you’re okay, right?”

He sat up and rubbed the back of his head, blinking the spots out of his eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Oh, thank goodness. That boss battle was a tough one, wasn’t it? But were you completely unconscious? Did you hear what just happened?”

“What do you mean?”

She looked grave. “On the radio. We got a bunch of distress messages from Captain Fu, saying that some strange monster had encountered him while he was out on his patrol, and then it sounded like something grabbed him, and he won’t answer at all now.”

“You mean he’s been kidnapped?”

“I think so. And just on the day when he was going to introduce us to Agents 1 and 2! Well, I suppose we’ll have to hurry and try to rescue both Nino and Fu now, before anyone else gets taken too…”

Adrien gulped. Things were just escalating so fast now. The danger was seeming ever closer, ever more real. How much longer until they could save the day and just go home? At least Marinette seemed to be taking everything in her stride. She was just so good at this whole hero thing.

“How are we going to keep going without Captain Fu’s guidance?” he asked.

“The other agents should be here soon. According to Fu they’re already linked up to our radio sets. Agent 1 will be through the left ear and Agent 2 will be through the r– hey, do you hear that?”

Adrien listened intently. Sure enough, there was an odd crackling noise through his headset. The next second, his left eardrum was being blasted with incomprehensible yelling.

“¡OOOOOOOOOO˥˥ƎH ¿ǝɯ ɹɐǝɥ noʎ uɐƆ ¿ollǝH”

And now a mellower voice through the right earpiece.

“You’re holding that upside down.”

The left ear now seemed to have reverted to a normal volume, and intelligible speech.

“Oh… Agent 1 of the New Miracusquid Splatoon reporting in!”

“Agent 2 also reporting in! We got an SOS from Captain Fu!”

“Are you Agents 3 and 4, aka Ladybug and Chat Noir? Don’t worry, we’re your new support team!”

“Yep! We’re taking over for the captain! Well, we’re going to try…”

“But we’ve gotta hurry, or the captain is as good as sushi!”

“Let’s roll, agents!”

The audio cut off again. Adrien and Marinette just looked at each other in bewilderment.

Those voices… they sounded familiar.

Like…

_Really_ familiar.

But no… it couldn’t be…

Could it?

Marinette pointed at her earpiece and mouthed, “It’s _them_ , right?”

Adrien shrugged. It certainly did sound like… _them_. But there was no way that two of the highest profile celebrities in the world could possibly be secret agents. Absolutely not. There was no way.

Wait – there was one way of finding out. Whenever Captain Fu was linked up with their sensors, there was a little icon of him on the electronic screen on the side of the earpieces. Adrien took both earpieces off for a second and looked at them.

The left one was an inkling with short black hair, wearing sunglasses, a sweater, and a purple beanie, with a huge grin on her face. The right one had long, light-blonde pigtails, wore a green hat and jacket, and a cloth over the lower half of her face.

Even with their “disguises” their identities were unmistakable. No one else in Inkopolis looked like that, and more importantly, no one else in Inkopolis _sounded_ like that.

Agents 1 and 2 were none other than Mireille and Aurore. The Squid Sisters.


End file.
